Palindrome
by Anachronistic
Summary: Infinite roadblocks keep Ran and Ken from each other. Yohji fights an internal battle between his loyalty to Weiss and his feelings for Schuldig, while Nagi's brave actions prove that there really is no black and white. [R/K-Y/S-O/N]
1. Prologue

[A/N: This is just a prologue, a sort of introduction to the main story. Plot comes in the next chapter. Promise.][Oh, and Weiss isn't mine. Probably a good thing, too. I wouldn't know how to handle them.][A palindrome, by the way, is a word or verse that is the same when read backwards or forwards. Like "madam, im adam" or "wow".]  
  
Prologue to Palindrome  
  
Brad Crawford was sick of Weiss. Why he hadn't killed them all off slowly and painfully a long time ago was beyond him. They've become almost like flies now, getting in the way of every mission and always foiling his best plans.  
  
Thoughts of his most recent mission nagged him. He had Weiss cornered in every way. Farfarello somehow managed to trap Siberian under the flooring of the building in which they were fighting. Brad had always known that Siberian wasn't the brightest crayon in the box. Bombay lay unconscious on the ground. It's never really too difficult to knock out the little pest. The most entertaining part was yet to come when Nagi made good use of Bombay's darts and arrows as he propelled them across the room at Balinese. Brad was enjoying himself immensely until Abyssinian appeared out of nowhere and managed to single-handedly completely turn the tables. Weiss had once again gotten away from him.  
  
Brad decisively resolved to terminate Weiss immediately.  
  
Of course, if there was anything Brad knew, it was the intricate art of termination. The first rule was the most important, as first rules often are: hate your enemy. Simple enough. To eliminate as stubborn an enemy as Weiss, one needs to focus his hatred entirely on the goal. He could do that. No problems there. The second rule was also very important although not with the intensity of the first, as second rules tend to be: know your enemy. This would take some research but that's what he had Schwarz for after all. The third rule proved to be more of a battle tactic: terminate as a whole. One must eradicate the ant pile, not each individual ant.  
  
~  
  
Fujimiya Ran was sick of Weiss. Why he hadn't killed them all off slowly and painfully a long time ago was beyond him. He wasn't sure why but he kept getting the distinct feeling they were trying to get on his good side, and he was not about to have any of it. Ever since the last mission, Omi has been making breakfast for everyone in the morning, Yohji obediently took his smoking outside, and Ken actually picked up after himself.  
  
Omi making breakfast wasn't so unusual, but the consideration of waking up early every morning to get the ingredients necessary for everyone's favorite meal was too much even for him. Especially since it took so much work on his part that he often barely managed to get any breakfast himself before running off to school.  
  
Yohji hasn't smoked inside for a week which is improbable but not impossible. Usually Ran could get him to take it outside with a healthy dose of yelling. However, now Yohji headed out the backdoor for a smoke before he could even get some nagging in.  
  
Anyone would consider these things strange if they'd have known Weiss for as long as Ran had. Nothing; however, could have prepared him for this. The morning after last week's mission, Ken had cleaned his room. Ran stood in the doorway, watching, shocked in his own indifferent sort of way. Ken was the type of person who had to buy new socks every week because he couldn't find any of his old ones. He was not the type of person whose room had any visible floor.  
  
"Yes, Aya?" Ken said from the ground of his room where he was sorting his clothes into piles of 'wearable' and 'un-wearable'.  
  
"What are you doing?" Ran asked in his monotone manner, marking the most he's said to Ken all week.  
  
"What? Isn't this good?" Ken replied, puzzled. "I thought you'd like this."  
  
"Hn." He didn't consider that a valid answer.  
  
Ran had always been a man of very few words. He said what was needed to be said with as little redundant speaking as possible. He stepped away from Ken's room and made his way down the hall. He also wasn't a person who favored change. The only change he looked forward to was the death of Schwarz and perhaps a raise from Persia. Everything else was added to his list of things to be suspicious of.  
  
~  
  
The major problem facing us today is that there was a certain key factor that the stoic leaders of Schwarz and Weiss didn't know of. Brad, since his last botched mission, has been exceptionally cruel to his fellow teammates. Nagi, for one, was sick of hearing it. If anyone did any work around here, it was definitely him and he still got bitched at the most. In fact, all the put-downs from Brad had made him question his own worth in the elite Schwarz. This will actually result in just as large a problem for Ran as for Brad. 


	2. Know Your Enemy

Know Your Enemy  
  
....  
  
The sun was relentless. Without exaggeration, it was a day that could have put the Dust Bowl to shame, and the Koneko no Sumu Ie was definitely feeling its effects. Only the truly dedicated fan girls stayed out that day, each emitting considerably less noise as the heat diminished their energy. The flowers required constant supervision and begged for water every few minutes. Much to the delight of the heat-exhausted fan girls, the undercover assassins wore significantly less that day. It was perhaps the only thing the poor girls had as motivation to stay, as one by one, they dropped like flies under the heat.  
  
Omi sat in the small garden they kept in the back of the store. Most of their merchandise was delivered to them, but as a true florist at heart, Omi decided that a flower shop wasn't really a flower shop without a garden somewhere in the vicinity. It was his pride and joy. It was also, conveniently, the only place on the block that got any sort of cool wind. Omi sighed and adjusted the water hose that was currently cooling down his beloved plants.  
  
Ken was used to the heat. Playing soccer wasn't exactly a form of cooling process. He adjusted the sweatband around his forehead as he moved the more light-sensitive plants out of the sun. The band kept his damp hair out of his face and his forehead cool. He had a water bottle strapped to the side of his belt which he had to keep filling up at least once every thirty minutes with ice cold water.  
  
Yohji was moping. The only heat he enjoyed was that which derived from a hundred hot, dancing bodies in a strobe light atmosphere. He needed a shower, but Ran kept bitching about how he takes up more water than the flowers. Yohji weighed the situation in his mind. He wondered what Ran was like before the cold mask of vengeance took over him. He was still a good person, he proved that to them all last week, just focused on something that made him difficult to understand. If there was anything Yohji knew, it was people.  
  
Ran was tending to his favorite thing in the shop, the cash register. He wore a gray t-shirt with sleeves rolled up, and his usual perpetual frown. Getting dressed that day, he realized a white shirt would probably be the most effective, but no such color existed in his closet. Gray proved to be the closest thing to success. They had a mission tonight. Manx had dropped by the night before with their full reports. It was nothing to be excited about; they didn't even have a living target this time. Go in, blow the place up, the end. If it weren't for the constant threat of Schwarz on their hands, they could have easily sent Omi in to get the whole thing done by himself. Maybe with someone as backup.  
  
~  
  
Speaking of Schwarz, Brad sat in his air-conditioned office, thinking of who best to send on the torturous assignment he had planned this fine afternoon. Without much deliberation, he quickly had Nagi sent in to his office. The boy came to a stop at the opposite side of his desk, dressed casually, out of his usual gray uniform.  
  
Without much further ado, Brad folded his arms over his chest and said, "The second rule of termination..."  
  
"...know your enemy," Nagi finished as if being reminded about the curfew rules of a household.  
  
"Right," Brad said stoically. "And, of course, you're aware of the outcome of our previous mission." Nagi sighed and nodded obediently. "If it weren't for Abyssinian, Weiss wouldn't be as difficult to eradicate as they are. He's the core, the key. I want you to find out everything there is to know about him."  
  
"Does that mean I can have my computer back?" Nagi replied, focused only on having the love of his life safely back in his arms.  
  
"Oh you don't need your computer for this assignment. It's more of an 'on-the-field' type of mission."  
  
Nagi was already hating this. He had not been looking forward to a day in the sun, especially to watch the fascinating workings of a flower shop all afternoon.  
  
"Find yourself a hiding spot, one where you can watch them without them watching you. Stay until you see something good. Find me a weakness, something I can use."  
  
Nagi turned around to leave the room. Perhaps a day away from Crawford won't be so awful after all.  
  
"Oh, and Naoe.." Nagi faced Brad at the sound of his name. "Don't get caught."  
  
"I appreciate the confidence," was the reply as Nagi hoped to get this dreaded assignment out of the way. Why did he always get stuck with the boring, almost-useless-but-not-quite-useless-enough missions?  
  
"Hey kid." The unmistakable scent of expensive cologne, that cool aura diffusing into every corner of the warm room, the German accent underlying each syllable... Schuldig.  
  
"What?" Nagi removed his hands from the main entrance of the building and turned to face his teammate.  
  
"Can I come?" Came the smug reply, one hand tying back his bothersome hair into a cool ponytail.  
  
"If you want to go so badly then why don't you just take the assignment? I'm in no hurry to fry on the rooftop of some decapitating building for the sheer pleasure of watching florists."  
  
"Really? I am, but it's your assignment, little one. I just thought you might want some company." Schuldig unbuttoned his jacket and tossed it over to the nearest chair. He'd need to sacrifice fashion sense if he was going to avoid heatstroke.  
  
"What's the real reason?" Nagi suddenly felt a bit telepathic himself. There was no way Schuldig was willing to suffer today's heat just to keep him company.  
  
"I have no idea what you mean," Schuldig insisted as he already made his way out the door, holding it open for Nagi.  
  
"Crawford would kill you," Nagi stated simply as the two made their way to Schuldig's car.  
  
"Why would he ever do a thing like that?" Schuldig asked innocently and hopped into the driver's seat.  
  
"How'd you know about the assignment in the first place?" Nagi asked, ignoring the question.  
  
"I was spying on you two. What's with you getting these crappy missions lately anyway?"  
  
"What's with you being so eager to go on these crappy missions?" Nagi brought back the tired topic.  
  
"Touche."  
  
"Don't speak French. Japanese sounds weird enough on you."  
  
~  
  
Ken dropped a large potted plant in a shady corner and reached for his water bottle to squirt the last of its contents into his mouth. He unscrewed the cap and made his way to the kitchen to fill it back up with the iciest water he could find.  
  
Yohji's chin slid off his hand and his head hit the counter with a loud thump. This heat was killing him. Ran or no Ran, he was going to take a shower and he didn't care if it was his fifth one this morning.  
  
"Where are you going?" Ran questioned as he saw Yohji tip-toeing up the stairs out of the corner of his eye.  
  
Yohji froze, turned around stiffly, and smiled his best sheepish smile. "Aya, I'm dying!"  
  
"We need to conserve water." Ran's ice cold voice sharply contrasted the humidity of the air around them.  
  
"I just thought of something, but to avoid the evil glare of doom, I think I'll keep it to myself." Yohji smirked. His mind never failed to go to dirty places.  
  
"Wise decision."  
  
"Oh Aya, warm up a little," Yohji sighed and walked over to where Ran was just replacing the money back into the register.  
  
No response, but Yohji hadn't really counted on one anyway. He lifted an eyebrow and pried his eyes into Ran's head as well as he could to make the annoyed redhead pay attention to him. "We know you love us," he said casually. Now that got his attention! Not his rare words, but at least his attention. "Otherwise you wouldn't have saved our asses last week like you did. We were all quite touched."  
  
"Is that what this is about?" The word 'eureka' flashed itself on and off inside of Ran's head. Omi's breakfasts, Yohji's smoking, Ken's cleaning; this was all some sort of attempt at compensation for bailing them out of that mess with Schwarz. Ran smirked to himself. They would, he thought.  
  
"Ah. You noticed. It was Ken's idea, believe it or not. When you pulled him out from that tiger trap Berserker set for him, he regretted always being such a pain in the ass to you."  
  
"Hn," was Ran's heartfelt reply. This conversation was making him uneasy. Professional assassins are not supposed to get attached to their teammates. You don't name your fish before you gut it, and you don't get attached to people whose likelihood of death is increased by about 75%.  
  
"See! I knew you cared!" Yohji beamed with just a hint of sarcasm in his voice.  
  
"Weren't you going to take a shower?" One surefire way to get rid of Kudou Yohji is to give him what he wants. The man wasn't a private detective for nothing.  
  
"Why yes I was!" Yohji exclaimed and was up the stairs in no time.  
  
Ran closed the register and leaned against the counter. Inadvertently, he had allowed Weiss to become something he cared for. Each of his teammates had slowly but surely dissipated a piece of that hard, cold mask he's intent on wearing. Yohji, for one, had a certain affable manner. It wasn't his looks that the women fell for; it was indisputably his patent charm. Omi had a certain charm as well, although strikingly different. He was vulnerable yet strong, childish yet wise, a perfect contradiction to himself. Then there was Ken. Ran and Ken had never gotten along swimmingly. They were both intensely fiery people. It certainly is difficult to quench fire with more fire, but it has been proven to work.  
  
These three had somehow managed to slip through without Ran knowing. This, he was sure, would be dangerous. 


	3. Shi Ne

Shi Ne  
  
...  
  
"Comfortable?" Nagi asked as he positioned himself at a windowsill of an out-of-commission factory just behind the Koneko no Sumu Ie.  
  
"Nice view from here," Schuldig replied as he sat back in an old office chair.  
  
"Bombay is in the back," Nagi absently mused.  
  
"You're supposed to be watching Abyssinian."  
  
"Well I can't watch what I can't see!"  
  
"Are you sure they can't see us up here?"  
  
"The windows are tinted, the shudders are closed and we're on the seventh floor. Even if by some miscalculation they did see someone up here, it would be impossible to tell who we are," Nagi explained.  
  
"If you say so," Schuldig shrugged.  
  
Nagi pulled his knees up to his chest and rested his chin on them. "Bombay seems to have recovered from last week." He focused his attention solely on the flower shop. He'd get out of that stuffy factory in less than an hour if it killed him.  
  
Schuldig smirked at Nagi and coolly turned his attention back outside.  
  
~  
  
Omi wiped the sweat off his forehead and sat down by the makeshift irrigation ditch he dug for easier access of water to the plants. He laid down on the ground next to the hose and watched the water flow smoothly through.  
  
"Hey, Omi! I need that hose!" Ken's head popped out of the backdoor.  
  
"Can it wait just a minute, Ken-kun? I'm almost done here," Omi replied, not looking up from where the water fell from the hose and onto the ground like a miniature waterfall. It put him in a sort of trance.  
  
Ken smirked, one of those mischievous, almost evil kind of smirks. Seeing Omi lying there on the ground, in the unrelenting sun, watching the water peacefully pool around the flowers gave Ken an idea. He casually strolled over to where the boy was stretched out and whistled a little tune, innocently looking around.  
  
Omi looked up at him suspiciously, but before he could react, Ken's foot pressed down just a bit on the nuzzle of the hose, splashing Omi from his head down to his waist. Ken then proceeded to go into a fit of laughter.  
  
"Ah! Ken-kun!" Omi picked himself up and started wringing out his shirt onto the sidewalk. He could not; however, keep a straight face long enough when watching Ken doubled over on the ground with tears in his eyes. A playful smile appeared on his lips.  
  
Omi, however harmless he may seem, was an assassin after all. As an assassin, he was trained to retaliate against attacks. Without a second thought, he pulled up the hose from the ground and proceeded to soak the defenseless Ken from head to toe, without mercy.  
  
"I surrender! I surrender!" Cried Ken, unable to escape the wrath of Omi. Satisfied with the result, Omi let the water flow back down the sidewalk. "Hell hath no fury like a Bombay soaked," Ken joked as he picked himself up off the ground.  
  
~  
  
"Truly kitten-like behavior," Schuldig observed with his trademark smirk plastered smugly on his face.  
  
"Uh.." Nagi seemed a bit speechless. He dropped one of his legs to hang off the windowsill while the other was used as a perch for his arms. "They look happy," he finally managed.  
  
"They do," Schuldig agreed.  
  
"But they're assassins. They go out at night and kill people. Murderers aren't supposed to be happy."  
  
Schuldig spun around in his chair, vaguely amusing himself as it rolled around the room. "They may be assassins, but they're not murderers. There's a thin, thin line but a line that makes all the difference in the world."  
  
Nagi stared wide-eyed. "So, they are the good guys."  
  
"There's no black and white, good and bad, little one." Schuldig stopped spinning and pulled his chair up to Nagi's windowsill. "In this situation we have all the shades of gray along with the whole visible spectrum.  
  
"Schwarz and Weiss... the fact that you say there's no black and white seems like an incredible irony."  
  
Schuldig laughed. "Don't be too jealous. Each of them has had heartbreaks like you wouldn't believe." Nagi turned to him questioningly. "I read minds, kid. I don't ever get bored."  
  
"You've read theirs before?"  
  
"'Before'? Ha! It's my favorite pastime." Schuldig raised an eyebrow as a stray strand of hair detached itself from his ponytail and fell over his eyes. "I do prefer watching their dreams, though."  
  
Nagi calmly turned to face the window again. He looked down at Bombay who was currently laughing at how massively soaked he managed to get his friend. Siberian, meanwhile, tried to salvage whatever dry spot of his clothes by wringing the water out over Bombay's feet. "What does Weiss dream about?"  
  
~  
  
Yohji was pissed. He flew down the stairs of the building they worked and resided in and stormed outside past a rather oblivious Ran. He angrily grabbed the knob of the backdoor and swung it open, marching roughly to where Omi and Ken stood.  
  
~  
  
"Balinese." Schuldig's lips curved up.  
  
~  
  
"I actually managed to get Aya to let me take a shower. I go to turn the faucet on and all the water pressure goes to hell!" Yohji looked upset.  
  
"You need to ask Aya permission to take a shower?" Omi asked, pouting as he tried to hide the still running hose behind his back.  
  
Yohji crossed his arms and looked at the two standing in front of him. He arched an eyebrow. "What were you two doing?"  
  
"Nothing," Omi answered quickly. Ken dripped at him.  
  
"Doesn't look like nothing," Yohji said slyly. Ken discretely took the hose from behind Omi's back and hid it behind his own.  
  
"Yohji. Did you say... you were going to take a shower?" Before Yohji even managed to open his mouth, a flood of water came at him. Even when his clothes were definitely saturated, Ken showed no mercy. Omi could barely hold in laughter as Yohji tripped backwards and fell roughly onto the ground.  
  
~  
  
"Wet Balinese."  
  
"Don't let Crawford hear you talking like that."  
  
"Is that concern I hear, little one?"  
  
Nagi didn't reply. "What does he dream about?"  
  
"He has nightmares about his lost love." Schuldig sighed. "Asuka, Asuka, Asuka. It's the only name he calls in his sleep."  
  
"I never thought of him as a commitment type of person."  
  
"He isn't and she's the reason why. He's afraid to get attached again only to have his love be taken away."  
  
"He's attached to Weiss."  
  
"He thinks there's a difference." Schuldig sneered. "He thinks it wouldn't hurt as much."  
  
"Would it?"  
  
"More."  
  
~  
  
"Ken! I'm going to kick your ass!" Yohji screamed as best as he could without swallowing any water. He could not; however, keep the laughter down at his current predicament.  
  
Quite unexpectedly to everyone involved, the high water pressure from the hose suddenly died down to just a small drizzle. Ken, Omi and Yohji looked up at the possible source of this distraction. Ran stood at the backdoor, one arm on his hip and one hand on the valve.  
  
"Aya-kun! We were just playing. You're not angry are you?" Omi didn't like being in trouble, especially with Ran.  
  
"Why would Aya be angry? He's the only dry one, after all." Yohji smirked and pulled himself up off the ground.  
  
Ran didn't respond. Instead, he held out his free hand to Ken and gave each of them their own personalized death glare. Ken sighed and walked over to him, handing him the hose.  
  
"No fun, Aya." Yohji pouted as he wringed out his hair. Ken took a few steps back from Ran, holding his palms up in front of him as a sign of surrender. Still completely silent, Ran began rolling the hose back up.  
  
"Hey.. Aya.." Ken said pleadingly, a tiny smile curving his lips. The redhead looked up at him, furious eyes narrowed. Ken swallowed hard, a nervous feeling formed in his stomach. I'm definitely going to die, he thought to himself.  
  
"Aya, shi ne!" He yelled as he pulled his water bottle off his belt and squirted ice cold water at Ran.  
  
~  
  
"He's going to absolutely kill him." Nagi was biting his lip.  
  
"He absolutely will not."  
  
"Crawford would."  
  
"Crawford and Abyssinian may seem alike in personalities, but they are very different people." Schuldig explained. If there was anything he knew, it was people's minds.  
  
~  
  
Yohji and Omi stood next to each other, each in their respective puddle, jaws dropped, eyes wide, breath stopped. Ken's smile only faded a little, which was admirable under the apocalyptic glare of the ice god himself. Slowly, slowly, Ran's hand moved over the valve and water started gradually pouring out of the hose. Ken ran like hell.  
  
Omi laughed, holding his side which threatened to split at any moment. This he could have never predicted.  
  
~  
  
Nagi laughed, a significantly quieter laugh than Omi, but Nagi was never expected to laugh at all.  
  
"Never heard you do that before," Schuldig commented, resting his chin on his palm.  
  
"Yea, me neither."  
  
~  
  
The hose was rather long which accommodated Ran well as he stalked Ken around the garden.  
  
"Aya, let's be fair!" Ken beckoned, backing away slowly with his hands in front of him. Ran gained on him, hose idle for the moment, letting the water fall to the ground. He looked dangerous. Ken laughed nervously. "I only squirted you a little. Look, I'm all soaked anyway and your shirt is just a little wet." Ran was not to be swayed. "Aya.. I can't fight back."  
  
Ken had never been the most graceful creature. Backing away from Ran, he managed to trip over his own feet and down he went. Ran swiftly grabbed Ken's arms to prevent any sort of escape and slipped the hose into his shirt, letting it do its work.  
  
~  
  
"Schuldig, what do they dream about?"  
  
Schuldig smirked and looked up at Nagi. The boy seemed somehow more relaxed than usual. He appeared to be just some normal kid sitting on a window ledge, not the heartless telekinetic of an assassin group bent on taking over the world. He looked almost innocent.  
  
"Abyssinian and Siberian.. what do they dream about?" Nagi added, not sure if Schuldig knew who his question referred to.  
  
"Each other." 


	4. What's The Plan?

/telepathy/  
  
What's The Plan?  
  
...  
  
The sun was ready to retreat for the night as it painted the sky various shades of red. Schuldig and Farfarello sat on the edge of the sidewalk in a comfortable silence, waiting for Brad and Nagi to finish their conference so they can get this mission on the road.  
  
Schuldig stared down at the ground and picked up a couple of stray rocks. He tossed them over in his hand as he thought about his and Nagi's small field trip earlier that day. Something happened to Nagi back there. Schuldig wasn't a mind reader for nothing. Watching Weiss together, being so close to normal turned some gears in the telekinetic's mind. It was not very often, after all, that he ever laughed; let alone actually allow someone else to see it.  
  
Farfarello, on the other hand, had been staring directly at the sky. "Looks like blood," he finally commented.  
  
Schuldig lifted his head up and looked at the streaks of red in the sky. "How symbolic."  
  
"Do we get to kill Weiss tonight? Streak the sky with their blood?"  
  
Schuldig let out a small, forced laugh. "You really are psychotic, you know that?"  
  
"Yes," Farfarello replied seriously and watched the sky.  
  
~  
  
"You're back early." Brad looked up at Nagi past the rim of his glasses.  
  
"It wasn't a difficult assignment," he replied and allowed himself to take a seat in a chair facing Brad.  
  
"Then I suppose that means you have something substantial for me."  
  
"I do."  
  
"And Schuldig wasn't too much of a distraction?" Brad sat back in his seat and watched the momentary look of surprise flash on the young boy's face.  
  
"You had a vision that he came with me?" Nagi assumed.  
  
"No," came the coldly amused reply. "I saw you leaving together out of this window."  
  
Nagi raised an eyebrow. "You're not angry."  
  
"I would be had you not found anything, but you seem to be rather confidant." Brad stood and leaned forward on his desk.  
  
"Truth be told, Schuldig did more help than harm on this assignment."  
  
"And why did he decide to go in the first place?"  
  
Nagi shrugged. "Probably just bored," he lied. A knot twisted itself in his stomach. If Crawford knew he was covering for Schuldig he'd probably be punished more than the perpetrator. Brad had been known to hit Nagi from time to time for good measure. It was nothing unexpected. 'Crawford's not the telepath, Crawford's not the telepath, Crawford's not the telepath,' he repeated to himself.  
  
Brad frowned at him. "Out with it, then. What's Abyssinian's weakness?"  
  
Nagi focused his eyes back on the older man and decisively replied, "Siberian."  
  
Brad's lips curved up a bit to the right. "Perfect."  
  
~  
  
"So what's the game plan, Red?" Yohji sprawled himself out on the couch they kept in the basement and stretched his legs over the edge.  
  
"I have a name," Ran frowned.  
  
"I'm sorry," Yohji faked sincerity. "What's the plan, R~an." He rolled his 'r' for emphasis, which he received another scolding look for. Only Ran's family ever called him by his real name, and he'd rather hang himself than admit that Weiss had become his family now.  
  
"Yohji-kun," Omi nudged him gently from his seat on the arm rest of the couch. Ken smiled at them from his seat in the large chair on the opposite side of the room. Ran stood in front of them with a manila envelope resting lightly in his grip.  
  
"No targets in this mission," he began as he pulled out a few sheets from the envelope. "Manx has gone over the story on this which you should all be familiar with. This is not a complicated assignment. There are eight floors to this building. We'll take two floors each, setting up the explosives in the designated areas. Yohji and Omi, you will take the bottom four floors. Once you're finished, leave the building and give us the signal that you're out. Ken and I will take the top four. We'll meet on top of the roof and detonate the bombs from there. We'll have approximately ten minutes to vacate. We meet down the street. Questions?"  
  
Yohji raised his hand.  
  
"Questions pertaining to the mission."  
  
Yohji lowered his hand.  
  
"Aya.." Ken spoke up and shifted in his chair. "How will we get off the roof in ten minutes?"  
  
"Eight stories isn't too high. We can make it down the fire escape in five."  
  
"If Schwarz is there..." Omi looked down at the ground. He hated fighting them. It was always too close of a call for him. Besides, he had to ignore his conscience every time he aimed an arrow at the seemingly defenseless Prodigy.  
  
"Then we'll do what we always do," Ran responded cryptically.  
  
"And what's that?" Omi persisted.  
  
"Improvise."  
  
"That what I was afraid of."  
  
"Missions are... a big deal to you, aren't they, Aya?" Yohji sat up on the couch and looked causally over at their leader.  
  
Ran had no response.  
  
"What makes you say that, Yohji-kun?" Omi asked for him.  
  
Appropriately, Yohji spoke to Ran as he answered the question. "I never hear you talk more about anything than about a mission."  
  
Ran had no interest in sticking around to hear anymore. They were loosing time as it was and he still needed to polish his katana. He walked over to the staircase and made his way out of the basement.  
  
"Yea, you know Aya. No harm can be done to a mission." Yohji stood up and stretched.  
  
Ken stood up, too and made his way up the stairs. "Actually, I think it's more like no harm can be done to us."  
  
Yohji's eyes widened for a moment but quickly returned to their regular suaveness before anyone noticed the change. Hey, maybe Ken was right for once.  
  
~  
  
"Let's go. If we don't leave now, we'll just miss them." Brad announced to everyone as he walked out through the front entrance and to his car. Nagi followed him out of the building, and Schuldig and Farfarello lifted themselves off the sidewalk at the sound of their teammates approaching. Brad unlocked his car and slid into the driver's seat. Schuldig plopped down next to him, and Farfarello and Nagi took their places in the beat seat.  
  
Nagi fixed his attention to his window, as he often did. Brad hadn't told him what he planned on doing with the information he gathered, but he had some ideas of what would go on tonight. He got a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach that he didn't quite know what to do about.  
  
/How'd the meeting go with Brad?/  
  
Nagi's thoughts were discontinued as Schuldig's voice echoed through his mind. /He knows you went with me./  
  
Schuldig's eyes widened a bit in the front seat. /Does he know why?/  
  
/No./  
  
/You're a good kid./  
  
/That's comforting to know seeing as I'll be expected to do some serious killing in about twenty minutes./  
  
Schuldig's laugh resonated through Nagi's mind, but the car remained completely silent. /You won't be killing anything tonight, little one. Unless maybe you step on a lizard./  
  
Nagi raised an eyebrow. /Really? What makes you say that?/  
  
/That nervous feeling in your stomach. Since when are you nervous about missions?/  
  
No direct response from Nagi, but Schuldig felt a sudden rush go through the boy's mind. /I'm not nervous./  
  
/I'm IN your head. You can't lie to someone who is actually IN your head./  
  
Nagi looked cross, but decided to let it go. No matter how good a liar you are, it just won't work on someone who can read your mind like a book. Known for his erratic topic changes, he clearly thought, /You never told me what Bombay dreams about./  
  
/I meant not to./  
  
/Why?/  
  
/I don't like to play with destiny too much. It'll affect your judgment./  
  
/Destiny?/ Nagi's mind laughed. /Manipulating destiny is your job./  
  
Schuldig chuckled. /Believe me, little one. You're confused right now./  
  
/I can't believe this. You're telling me how I feel?/  
  
/Is that really so hard to believe? You're stuck between what you know and what you want./  
  
/Get out of my head./  
  
/Make me./ And so, Nagi made him. 


	5. Glitch

Glitch  
  
...  
  
"Does everyone know what to do?" Ran stood at the entrance of the building they were to expire tonight. The targets associated with this place were taken care of almost two weeks ago. Weiss was put on pause with finishing the job because Persia wanted to investigate the place. Now that Kritiker was done with it, they were called back to wipe it off the map.  
  
"Yea, yea. I'm missing a date for this useless mission so let's get this done as fast as possible." Yohji looked cool, calm and collected as always. This time with a slightly irritated look in his suave eyes.  
  
"All ready, Aya-kun," Omi replied, shifting his feet beneath him. The part of the mission right before they split up was always the most dreaded part for him because he couldn't help thinking that it would be the last time they were all together.  
  
"Make sure you can all keep in contact in case anything goes wrong," Ran added and began walking towards the main staircase.  
  
"That's not worry I hear, is it, Aya?" Ken asked and raised an eyebrow.  
  
"I'm always worried with you around," Ran shot back in his coldest voice, only to realize that his comment could have been taken in two ways.  
  
"D'ya hear that, guys? Aya worries about me!" Ken said in his best 'Yohji' voice and followed the enraged redhead up the stairs. They were soon both out of sight.  
  
"Alright babe, this'll be faster if we split up." Yohji adjusted his headset and headed for the stairs. "See ya' in ten!"  
  
Omi looked around at the ground floor and got into mission mode. He went to work right away, setting up the first bomb at one of the columns holding up the foundation of the building.  
  
"Weiss, come in. Can everyone hear me?" Ran's voice sounded through the headset.  
  
"Hear ya' loud n' clear, Aya!" Ken's voice ricocheted through the headset which meant that he still must be with Ran, and both of their microphones picked up the sound. Omi could almost hear Ran glaring death at Ken.  
  
"I'm here, Aya-kun. I'm almost done with the ground floor," he obediently responded as he attached the second bomb into it's place.  
  
"Alright guys," Ken's voice sounded again, this time with no reverberation. "I'm leaving Aya and going on the top two floors."  
  
"Yohji, come in." Ran again, but no response from Yohji. "Omi, is Yohji with you?"  
  
"No, he left right after you. It's OK, Aya-kun. I'm going to the second floor as we speak. Yohji should be making his way down in a few moments."  
  
~  
  
Yohji just finished with his assignment and quickly made his way down the staircase to meet Omi on the ground floor. He had attached all the bombs as instructed by their valiant leader and felt rather confident with the job he did. However, half way down the staircase, he was stopped by a familiar echo inside his head.  
  
/Hey, blondie./ Yohji was shocked for about a quarter of a second before he quickly regained his smooth composure and looked around at the staircase. Nothing. It's alright, he could handle this no problem.  
  
"Going to play mind games again or are you here for some action?" Yohji called out to apparently no one. He was well aware of the double meaning of that question. He let his glasses drop a bit so he could look over them.  
  
"Missed me, Balinese?" This time Schuldig's voice sounded through the room instead of inside Yohji's head.  
  
"I thought we were on a first name basis," the blonde smirked and turned his attention to the top of the stairs where his counterpart stood.  
  
"Oh, you are a tease." Schuldig let his arms drop to the sides. "This place is a bit stuffy for us, though. What do you say? Take this outside?"  
  
"And how exactly do you plan on getting out of here without Weiss surrounding you?"  
  
Schuldig chose not to respond with words. He pulled out his gun and aimed it just an inch away from Yohji's arm. He shot and hit the knob of a door Yohji hadn't even noticed was there. He calmly walked by his enemy and kicked the door open. It flew off and he motioned with his hand for Yohji to go first.  
  
"If you insist." Yohji walked outside and found himself on the third floor of the fire escape. Since it wasn't very far down, he merely jumped onto the covering above the first floor and then onto the ground. Schuldig followed and they stood about ten feet apart, poised for casual conversation rather than a fight.  
  
~  
  
Ken had just finished with the sixth floor and made his way quickly up the stairs to the seventh. He couldn't quite get the last explosive attached the first couple times, and now he was running late. He tried contacting Weiss through the headset but soon realized that he couldn't get any connection at all. When something goes wrong within the first five minutes, that's a definite sign that the rest of the mission will follow in the same footsteps.  
  
"Good evening, kitten." Ken spun around on the staircase, not expecting to hear that voice.  
  
"You." His eyes narrowed at his nemesis.  
  
"Let's paint the sunset," Farfarello said mysteriously and pulled out two knives which he kept attached to his belt.  
  
Ken didn't know what to make of that, but he never found it a pleasant hobby to figure out cryptic psychopaths. His bugnuks suddenly shot out of his glove as he prepared himself to fight.  
  
~  
  
Omi made his way back down the stairs, his part of the assignment completed to the letter. He briefly wondered if maybe he could still have time to fix the connection between their headsets before Ken and Ran were ready to detonate. If he remembered Ran's game plan right, Yohji was supposed to be waiting for him outside of the building. However, that was not who he found waiting for him.  
  
"Convenient. I didn't even have to search for you." Nagi leaned against a tree as he watched Omi make his way out of the building.  
  
"What are you doing here?"  
  
"Well, to tell you the truth, my assignment was just to keep you busy while Crawford takes out Abyssinian, but my mind changed halfway here. I was told, by a certain anonymous telepath, that even if I tried, I wouldn't have the guts kill you tonight. I really want to prove him wrong." Came the sinister explanation from the young Schwarz.  
  
Omi's eyes widened at the thought of Ran being set up, but there wasn't much he could do about it. Even if Prodigy had told him their plan, he was still cornered into it. He pulled out three arrows and prepared himself to dodge any attack Nagi would throw at him. Easier said than done.  
  
~  
  
"I'm a man of my word as I'm sure you know, Abyssinian." Brad stood calmly in front of Ran on the sixth floor. He kept both hands in clear view as if to show that he's come in peace.  
  
"Your word means nothing to me," Ran shot back, katana poised and ready.  
  
Brad sighed and pulled out what looked like a remote control from his jacket pocket. "This is the redundant part of my job." He pushed his glasses up a bit as they fell over his nose. "Because I already know what you're going to do, but if I don't explain everything to you, you won't do it. It's like I have to live everything twice."  
  
"Pity." Ran briefly fixed his eyes on the small device in Brad's hands. He had to admit, it caught his attention.  
  
Brad smirked. "Would you like to know what this does, Abyssinian?"  
  
~  
  
"You don't seem to be trying very hard!" Yohji called to his opponent as he dodged several poorly aimed bullets.  
  
"Neither do you," Schuldig smirked. "Because if I weren't trying and you were, I'd be dead by now."  
  
"Good point."  
  
"You know what I just noticed?" Schuldig asked as he evaded the wire aimed an inch away from his head.  
  
"What's that?" Yohji asked, catching his breath.  
  
"You look good today."  
  
Yohji faked a pout. "Does that mean I don't look good every other day?"  
  
~  
  
'He's so young. How can he possibly know rather what he's doing is wrong or right?' Omi's conscience screamed at him as he ignored it and shot round after round of arrows at his opponent.  
  
"Where's all this determination coming from?" Nagi called to him as he just barely dodged an arrow headed straight for his head.  
  
"I won't let you hurt my friends!" Omi retorted, anger mixed with worry and fortitude etched in his face.  
  
Nagi's eyes widened at hearing this. He froze for a moment, which was enough of a pause to allow Omi a window into his force field. He shot three well-aimed arrows at him, one which hit directly into his side.  
  
Nagi flinched in pain and his hand immediately went to nurse the wound. It looked bad, and he felt the blood trickling down his stomach.  
  
Nagi suddenly looked up at his nemesis, not knowing what to make of him. This was the same Bombay that made him laugh that afternoon for the first time in what seemed like forever. He seemed so predatory now, even more than usual during their fights. This time, he was fighting for his friends. This left Nagi thinking if any of his team mates would do the same for him.  
  
~  
  
Farfarello was pushing Ken's defenses back with an impressive attack. Ken held his bugnuks up strong against the two knives mere inches away from his face, but he couldn't get enough momentum for a counterattack. Farfarello begin walking forward, pushing Ken to walk back.  
  
"Damn," Ken cursed under his breath as his feet were forced up the stairs. He hoped he wouldn't have a klutz attack and trip over his own feet. Before he knew it, though, Farfarello had him pinned up against the door that led to the top of the building.  
  
All of a sudden, Farfarello's grip seemed to loosen on his knives, and Ken managed to push him back, giving himself just enough time to regain his poise and push the door open. He walked out onto the roof and turned to face his opponent.  
  
Farfarello looked up and allowed himself a small smirk. He walked up the last few stairs to the roof, and stepped through the door, again eyelevel with his counterpart. Everything was according to plan. 


	6. Falling

Falling [6]  
  
...  
  
"Well, Abyssinian? You can't tell me you're not even a bit curious." Brad's eyes were fixed on his archenemy.  
  
Ran didn't allow himself to be swayed. This could all be a trick, and he wasn't about to put away his katana just because Brad wasn't waiving his gun around.  
  
"Alright then, I'll tell you anyway. This control," Brad held it up for Ran to see, "is a rather useful little toy. You see, it detonates every bomb within a one mile radius."  
  
"What's your point? Even if you use it, we'll all still be on the same slate with the same amount of time to get out of a collapsing building." Ran wasn't quite connecting how this could be useful to Schwarz.  
  
"Ah, but you see, Abyssinian, I have a certain advantage right now. Would you care to know what it is?" Brad was enjoying himself.  
  
"What is it?" It sounded more like a demand rather than a question coming from Ran.  
  
"I knew you'd ask," Brad teased and rolled the control in between his fingers in the most mocking manner he could manage. "Siberian is currently on top of the roof fighting Farfarello."  
  
"What's this have to do with him?" Ran was now more ready than ever to splatter Brad's brains as all over his fucking one mile radius.  
  
"Everything," Brad answered and allowed his lip to curve up a bit to the right. "You see, he wasn't quite able to finish his assignment tonight. He set up the seventh floor all right, but got.. caught on the staircase to the eighth."  
  
Ran's eyes widened; he knew what that meant, but Brad wasn't about to deprive himself of saying it.  
  
"Your precious Siberian is currently packing two bombs that'll blow him to infinity the second I press this button."  
  
"You're lying." Ran hoped to call his bluff.  
  
"Am I?" The confidence oozed from Brad's voice.  
  
Ran's mind worked a mile a minute, but when it came down to it, he was not about to risk his team mate's life for a fifty/fifty chance. "What do you want?"  
  
"I knew you'd see it my way."  
  
~  
  
"So tell me, did you know we would be here tonight?" Schuldig asked, gun momentarily idle at his side.  
  
"Nope. It was a total surprise, to me at least," Yohji replied, his wire snapping back into his watch. He slowly approached his counterpart.  
  
"Me too, actually." Schuldig walked to meet him halfway.  
  
"Which brings me to ask, why are you here? This is such a routine mission, there can't possibly be anything we're doing that would foil Oracle's world domination plans."  
  
"Tell you the truth, he kept me in the dark on this one. If I were to guess though, he has something up his sleeve for Abyssinian," Schuldig shrugged but suddenly felt uncomfortable as he saw Yohji's eyes narrow with suspicion.  
  
"What makes you say that?" The trained PI questioned.  
  
"Well, if you must know, he sent the kid out earlier this afternoon to spy on you," Schuldig replied nonchalantly. "Of course, I tagged along."  
  
Yohji's wire shot out from his watch and immediately wrapped itself around Schuldig's neck.  
  
"I feel used, darling," Schuldig said, smirking a bit despite the situation.  
  
Yohji smiled his smoothest smile. "We tease, but we're enemies in the end. You know that. I become a different person when it comes to the safety of Weiss."  
  
"I wouldn't expect it any other way," Schuldig replied and pulled his arm up to aim his gun at Yohji. "Stalemate."  
  
~  
  
'Help him.'  
  
'Kill him.'  
  
Omi's mind battled with itself. This was such an opportunity to finally be rid of the Schwarz telekinetic, but his conscience wouldn't allow him to do it. No matter how he looked at the situation, the fact of the matter was that a young boy, younger than himself even, was barely standing in front of him and loosing blood quickly.  
  
"What's it going to be, Bombay?" Nagi asked as he watched his opponent slowly approach him.  
  
"Don't move," Omi advised, partially for his own safety, and partially because even the smallest movement can wedge the arrow further in.  
  
Nagi's mind suddenly flashed back to that afternoon. The sort of caring he saw among Weiss.. what he wouldn't do for a feeling like that. That, of course, had no room in his life. He quickly cleared his mind and lifted his free hand in front of him.  
  
Omi stopped in his tracks, about five feet in front of his opponent. "Don't," he managed to say before a wave of energy swept over him, pushing him back.  
  
~  
  
"I'll tell you what; since you've been so cooperative tonight, I'll give you thirty seconds to save him," Crawford said seriously and looked down at his watch.  
  
"What!?" Ran felt frozen in his spot.  
  
"Twenty-nine, twenty-eight.."  
  
Ran suddenly felt as if there were no other choices. He turned on his heels and ran as fast as he could up the stairs and to the roof. Everything was a blurred image in his mind. He didn't know how long he was taking, but all he knew is that he had to go as fast as his legs could possibly make do.  
  
"Ken!" Ran managed out of his constricted throat upon pushing open the door to the roof.  
  
"Aya...?" Ken looked up. He had the upper hand of the situation and was currently holding his bugnuks down at Farfarello's throat.  
  
"Get rid of the bombs, Ken!"  
  
~  
  
"A gun will kill you faster," Schuldig reasoned.  
  
"That depends on how hard I pull," Yohji retorted.  
  
"I have a plan."  
  
"What would that be?"  
  
"We each let go at the same time and go our separate ways to help our own teams. We're not doing any good to anything playing these games here," Schuldig suggested, lowering his gun just a bit.  
  
"Good plan. At the count of three. One-Two-Three.."  
  
Both being men of their honor, they let go at the same time. Yohji's wire snapped back into its case and Schuldig's gun did the same.  
  
A quick flash of alarm suddenly swept over Schuldig's face as he allowed his mind to trace over Nagi's. He was hurt. "Let's go, Balinese! We've got a fight to fight!" He called to Yohji, and soon disappeared from sight.  
  
~  
  
Omi had to think quick. There had to be some way to break through Prodigy's powers, especially now that he's as weakened as he is. Omi pushed against the energy, walking heavily towards his rival. If he could get to him, then somehow he could make him stop this.  
  
"Nagi.." He managed past the forceful current, driving his hand towards the one that was currently pushing him away. Nagi was not to be swayed. If anything, the plea made him try harder. However, the enfeebled state he was already in allowed Omi for more control than usual.  
  
Omi gathered up the last of his strength and pushed himself forward, grabbing Nagi's hand with as much force as he could gather. A quick wave of energy passed through them both and they collapsed to the ground, exhausted.  
  
Nagi leaned heavily on his left side, the loss of blood finally having a major effect on him. Omi picked himself up and moved forward so Nagi could lean on him.  
  
"I can fix it if you let me," he offered.  
  
"Doesn't look like I have much of a choice." ~  
  
Ken knew not to ask questions. He quickly ripped the explosives off his belt and threw them off the side of the building. Ran swiftly made his way towards him and pulled him down to the ground, expecting the bombs to explode midair.  
  
Instead, Brad coolly walked out through the door, still holding the small device for everyone to see. Ran looked up from his spot on the ground and suddenly felt a rush of anger go through him.  
  
"You were bluffing," he accused the American as he stood up to eyelevel with him.  
  
"Oh no, not at all," Brad insisted. "I just wanted to make sure my team evacuated the premises before I set them off."  
  
"Aya, Berserker's gone," Ken said, looking around for his adversary.  
  
"Ken, get out of here," Ran ordered and pulled out his katana.  
  
"Aya.." Ken objected.  
  
"Follow orders and get out," came the stern reply and Ken did as he was told. He knew better than to go against Weiss's fearless leader when he sounded that determined. He quickly left the roof and was going down the fire escape in no time.  
  
"Siberian," Nagi pointed out to Omi who was now cautiously pulling the arrow out of the his side.  
  
Omi looked up and saw Ken at the eighth story of the fire escape. 'Something's not right. Where's Aya-kun?'  
  
Schuldig saw the two from far away. He had been following Nagi's memory of the direction he took to get where he was. He was also vaguely aware that Yohji was following not far behind him.  
  
"My apologies, Abyssinian. This was really meant as a special present for you. I wouldn't want to be here to spoil it," Brad said and gracefully made his escape down the side of the building, jumping off the small roof on top of the sixth and first floors. Ran clutched his katana and ran after him to the edge of the roof. How Schwarz had the ability to defy gravity like that was beyond him.  
  
"Coward!" He called after him only to have the base beneath his feet escape him. Brad had detonated the bombs and Ran felt himself falling down the side of the collapsing building, helpless to do anything but continue falling. 


	7. Paradigm Shift

[A/N: a paradigm shift is like a change of the state of mind. And since I'm here already, thanks for the reviews, you rule. Sorry for the cliffhanger, by the way. I couldn't help myself. Hope you forgive me. ^_^]  
  
Paradigm Shift [7]  
  
...  
  
"Where are Schuldig and Naoe?" Brad caught up to Farfarello a short way down from the building.  
  
"I haven't seen them since we separated before the mission," Farfarello replied, looking around for his team mates.  
  
"They can take care of themselves," Brad insisted but tried to channel his thoughts to Schuldig anyway.  
  
~  
  
/Brad, where are you?/ Schuldig looked around at what was happening around him and couldn't think of the first thing to do but contact his leader.  
  
/Where we designated to meet after the mission. Farfarello is with me./  
  
/I see Nagi. We'll be alright. Go ahead without us./ Schuldig insisted and heard no opposition from Brad.  
  
Yohji finally caught up to him and almost lost his breath as he saw what everyone had been starting at. "Aya!"  
  
~  
  
Ran felt real panic, something that doesn't come to him very often. He was falling and fast. He let go of his katana some time ago and now had nothing to grasp on to. Suddenly, he felt himself stop in midair. Not quite sure what had caused this, he looked up to see Ken desperately clutching his arm from the sixth story fire escape.  
  
"Close one, huh?" Ken smiled down at him despite the circumstances.  
  
"Ken.." Ran looked a bit awestruck for a moment until he regained his senses. "No, you have to let me go! This fire escape will collapse under your feet. Just let me go and run like hell!"  
  
"Yea, right." Ken almost laughed it off. "I just need a better grip on your arm so I can pull you up. Just hold on to.." He wasn't able to finish his sentence before, as predicted, the fire escape gave in altogether and both men went falling to the ground, with nothing to hold on to this time.  
  
Omi caught his breath for perhaps the sixteenth time that night. "Ken! Aya!" He shut his eyes and moved his head to the side, refusing to see the outcome of this.  
  
Nagi looked up at Omi and, for a split second, was completely lost in his own mind.  
  
"Schwarz and Weiss..."  
  
"There's no black and white, good and bad, little one." Schuldig's voice appeared out of his memories.  
  
"Find me a weakness, something I can use." Brad this time. That uncaring voice, interested only in his own ominous purposes.  
  
"Abyssinian and Siberian.. what do they dream about?"  
  
"Each other." That conversation with Schuldig that started all of this. What if they both died? He'd be responsible. Worse yet, what if one died and the other didn't? Nagi got the most awful feeling in his stomach.  
  
"You're a good kid." Schuldig again.  
  
"You're stuck between what you know and what you want."  
  
"I won't let you hurt my friends!" Finally, Omi's voice broke through in his memories, and there was no more doubt.  
  
Nagi pulled his arms away from Omi's, bleeding side or no bleeding side, and forced out every last bit of energy left in him. Ran and Ken suddenly stopped near the top of the first floor and gently descended to the ground. Nagi collapsed totally from exhaustion.  
  
"Holy shit," Schuldig couldn't believe what he was seeing.  
  
Yohji allowed his lips to curve a bit to one side. Well that was.. unexpected. He wasn't quite sure what to do with himself. He looked over at Schuldig who seemed to be having the same problem.  
  
Omi opened his eyes, bewildered. He looked down at Nagi who was almost unconscious on his shoulder.  
  
"Let's go, kid." Schuldig finally moved and picked Nagi up off the ground. "You've done enough for one night."  
  
"Schuldig," Nagi murmured into his shoulder. "Promise you won't tell Crawford?"  
  
Schuldig laughed and waved good-bye to Omi and Yohji as he disappeared, like he often does, into thin air, with Nagi in his arms.  
  
/No, I won't say anything. You have too much blackmail on me, anyway./  
  
/Thanks./  
  
/You and I need to have a conversation, though./  
  
~  
  
Omi finally stood up off the ground and looked up at Yohji. Without words, they walked over to where Ran and Ken were trying to recover, themselves.  
  
"What the hell happened?" Ken was kneeling on the ground, one palm on his forehead.  
  
"Omi, you're bleeding," Ran noticed and picked himself up.  
  
"It's not my blood," Omi replied quietly, looking at his feet.  
  
"Aya," Ken said, looking over at his team mate. "How are we alive?"  
  
Yohji sighed and pulled his dirtied glasses off his nose, wiping them with the cuff of his jacket. "It was that Schwarz telekinetic.." he started but was interrupted by Omi.  
  
"Nagi."  
  
"You are not serious," Ken groaned as he picked himself up off the ground. He wiped his forehead and looked at the blood on his hand with disdain.  
  
Ran didn't say anything as he barely managed to limp towards them, holding his ribs.  
  
"Here, I got ya'." Ken moved to hold him up, but Ran pushed him away.  
  
"It's fine."  
  
Without another word, they all made their way through the ruins of the building and to where Yohji parked Seven, their mode of transportation for the night. He got into the driver's seat (only Yohji was allowed to drive Seven), and Ran slipped into the passenger's seat, wincing as he put pressure on his bruised ribs. Ken and Omi perched themselves at the doors of the backseat, each lost in his own thoughts.  
  
~  
  
"I think we should take him to the hospital," Schuldig said to Crawford as he watched Farfarello wrap a bandage around Nagi's wound.  
  
"And tell them what?" Came the cold reply.  
  
"Well, at least get a private doctor over to look at him. It's a deep wound."  
  
"If you insist," Brad said as he retreated to his office to call for some sort of private medical assistance.  
  
/Talk to me, kid./  
  
/Since when do you care about what happens to me?/ Even Nagi's thoughts sounded strained.  
  
Schuldig sighed and sat on the edge of the bed. /This isn't the time to discuss my morals. It's time to discuss yours. How about you explain a little bit of what went through your head back there./  
  
Nagi almost smirked. /I thought you knew everything that goes on in my head./  
  
/I'm not playing games, kid. Do you have any idea how serious what you did was?/  
  
/Yes, I'm not stupid. I know very well how serious it was./  
  
/Not stupid? Really? Could've fooled me./ Schuldig laid down at the foot of Nagi's bed, stretching his arms over his head.  
  
"I'm going to go clean my knives," Farfarello announced and stood up. "Siberian's blood is drying on them."  
  
"See ya, Fraf." Schuldig called, not betraying anything of the tone of conversation he and Nagi were currently having.  
  
/If you must know, your words were the majority of what was going through my head right before I saved them./ Nagi's voice forced itself into his mind.  
  
/Don't blame this one on me./  
  
Nagi's mind became silent for a moment. Well, as silent as a mind can be. Human thoughts are screaming entities, each one trying to be heard over the next. /You said before the mission that you knew I wouldn't kill them./  
  
/There's a neutral territory between not killing someone and actually going out of your way to keep them alive. You completely just skipped right over that territory, kid./  
  
/I was thinking about what you said about there being no real good and bad, and if there is only gray than how can I say that they're not good enough to live? Then I thought of Crawford and how he's never looked out for us a day in his life./  
  
/And that sounds like a good reason to act as irrationally as you did?/  
  
/Abyssinian and Siberian both risked their own lives to save each other. They did it without even a second thought, and I've never known people in my entire life to act like that.  
  
/I'm hurt./  
  
/Shut up, I'm being serious./  
  
~  
  
Yohji's foot kept slipping a little harder onto the pedal. He felt like driving right off the edge of the world. That kid, he thought, rolling his cigarette in his mouth. Doesn't he know the rules of this game? We're rivals, nemeses. But damn, would it be easier if we weren't.  
  
Yohji looked over at Ran who seemed to have made it his duty to scowl at everything they drove past. "You alright, Aya?"  
  
"Hn." The grunt and the frown.  
  
"Drive you to a hospital?"  
  
"No. I said it's fine."  
  
"You always say that."  
  
"And I'm always fine."  
  
Can't argue with that. Ran had an eerie ability to just walk his injuries off. Well, the physical ones at least. The emotional ones would take some work on the part of someone who's willing to get their hands dirty.  
  
Yohji turned away from his teammate and focused his attention back on the road. His mind lingered on his fight with Mastermind earlier that night. Why is it that whenever they fight, they can never bring themselves to give it all they've got? He knew that if they had been both trying tonight, one of them would have ended up dead. Instead, they both left with barely a scratch. It wasn't normal protocol to go easy on the enemy.  
  
Ran tuned Yohji out of his head and focused his attention back to the trees they quickly passed by. He kicked himself for being so impulsive. He has always gone out of his way to deliberately be as rational, levelheaded, and composed as possible. Losing it all like that because of one thing made him feel weak and at a disadvantage to the enemy. Oracle could have very well gotten his head on a silver platter tonight, and that thought bothered him immensely. No, Ran thought, no more of allowing this to hinder his abilities and clear thinking.  
  
Omi closed his eyes and tried to still his mind. It was still racing from the mission. He was relieved beyond belief that his teammates were safe, but confused by everyone's unusual actions. Why did the Schwarz telekinetic help his friends? 'More importantly, why did I help him?' Omi thought and rested his head on the door. He had a sinking feeling in his stomach that this was just the beginning of something much bigger.  
  
Ken mentally kicked himself. How could he have been so royally stupid and careless? He bit his lip and looked over to Ran in the front seat. He had the haunting feeling that their fearless leader would not let this slide by easily. How could he have just completely missed the explosives attached to his belt? He turned his attention back outside and sighed. 'I put all of them in danger. Especially Aya,' he thought, guilt building up inside of him. 


	8. Mending

Mending [8]  
  
...  
  
"Ow," Ken complained as another sharp sting swept over the wound on his head.  
  
"Well, if you hold still like I told you instead of squirming around like a little kid, it wouldn't hurt so much." Yohji pulled out a clean cotton swab from the small plastic bag and poured some disinfectant on it.  
  
"Yea right, liar," Ken objected and shut one eye.  
  
"How'd you manage to let Berserker cut you way up here anyway?" Yohji questioned and dabbed the cotton swab onto Ken's cut.  
  
"I don't know. He had the upper hand on me for a while." Ken bit his lip. "Are you done yet?"  
  
"Yea, just let me wrap this around your head." Yohji pulled out a roll of bandage and unraveled enough to circle Ken's head several times.  
  
"Hey, Yohji.."  
  
"Hm?" He replied as he began wrapping the bandage around Ken's head, pulling his hair up so it doesn't get caught.  
  
"Aya's mad at me, isn't he?"  
  
Yohji stopped for a second to catch the look on Ken's face but soon continued his job. "If you ask me, he's probably more mad at himself than you."  
  
"Yea right!" Ken called out and flinched as he accidentally scraped his cut against Yohji's hand.  
  
"I said stay still!"  
  
"Sorry," Ken mumbled and calmed down. "Point is, I was a total idiot last night, and I wouldn't be surprised if Aya thought so, too."  
  
"You saved his life."  
  
"A lot of good that did! We both would've died anyway if it wasn't for that Schwarz kid."  
  
"Yea, what the hell was that anyway?" Yohji pulled the bandage around Ken's head for the last time and tucked the edge in to keep it from unraveling.  
  
"I don't know, but I don't really care." Ken looked down at his hands and chewed his tongue.  
  
"If you're thinking this much about Aya then just go talk to him. It won't be the most pleasant conversation you'll ever have, but maybe you can get something resolved.  
  
"I should, but I don't know what to say."  
  
Yohji looked playfully thoughtful for a moment. "I think something along the lines of, 'Aya, I'm madly in love with you, and I'll just die if you don't forgive me.' should work."  
  
"Yohji!" Ken pulled a pillow off his bed and chucked it at the offender.  
  
"Damn! That was brutal!" Yohji rubbed the side of his face. "You're like a teenage girl with a crush. It's ridiculous," he added and watched Ken angrily storm out of the room.  
  
~  
  
"Wake up, kid." Schuldig hovered over Nagi's bed.  
  
"What?" Came the mumbled response.  
  
"I'm going to go see him." He knelt down next to the bed and perched his arms on top of it.  
  
Nagi sat up and scowled at him. "You must be joking."  
  
/Keep your voice down!/  
  
"I'm going to sleep."  
  
/No, come on. I just need you to cover for me./ Schuldig bit his lip and watched his teammate through the dark.  
  
There was a short moment of stunned silence. /It's been nice knowing you./  
  
/I know what you're thinking, but Brad's not going to find out./  
  
/What the hell do you mean 'Brad's not going to find out'?/ Nagi laughed nervously. /Crawford knows everything!/  
  
/Not everything, kid./ Schuldig smirked. /If he knew everything, we'd both be dead a long time ago./  
  
/I don't know about you, but I don't remember doing anything wrong./  
  
/You must have a serious case of amnesia then./ Schuldig laughed.  
  
Nagi frowned at him. /Well, I hope you're not stupid enough to go to the flower shop./  
  
/No, he's going out to a club tonight./  
  
/And what makes you think Crawford won't find out?/  
  
/Absolutely nothing, but I'm willing to take my chances./  
  
~  
  
"It's so hard to fight him." Omi sighed and did the final wrap around Ran's ribs.  
  
"I don't see why not. He's clearly our enemy." Ran looked away for a moment and rephrased his statement. "Well, at least it used to be clear."  
  
"You see? That's why it's so hard!" Omi sat down on the bed and started putting things away back into the medical kit box. "I think he's really a good person, and he just doesn't know rather he's fighting for the right thing anymore."  
  
Ran buttoned his shirt back up. "I think he had a temporary lapse in sanity."  
  
Omi closed the medical kit and folded his hands on top of it. "He helped us; I want to return the favor." He looked down, knowing Ran wouldn't be pleased with this.  
  
"You'll do nothing of the sort."  
  
"But, Aya-kun!" Omi began to object but Ran interrupted him.  
  
"Don't be naive!"  
  
"He saved your life!"  
  
"He did," Ran agreed, his voice losing some of its sharpness. "That doesn't mean he's reformed." He tended to be less harsh on Omi. In fact, the other members of Weiss usually went out of their way to look out for the little one. A natural instinct, one could say.  
  
"And if he does?"  
  
Ran sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. "If he does, I won't try to kill him."  
  
"Aya-kun, promise you'll give him a chance," Omi pleaded.  
  
"I said I won't kill him. That's all the promise you'll get from me."  
  
Omi sighed, accepting defeat. He knew that when Ran had his mind set on something, it's near impossible to change it. As if on cue, Ken's figure broke the light streaming in from the hallway.  
  
"Do you need something?" Ran asked, turning his attention to the doorframe.  
  
Ken's look of determination seemed to run into oblivion upon hearing the coldness in Ran's voice. "I can come back when you're finished." He turned to leave.  
  
"We're finished!" Omi declared cheerfully and made his way out of the room, medical kit in hand.  
  
Ran carefully sat down on his bed and swung his legs onto it. "Well?"  
  
"You're mad at me," Ken said, cutting right to the chase.  
  
"I'm not."  
  
Ken scrunched his eyebrows and sat down on the edge of Ran's bed. "What's with the silent treatment then?"  
  
"You're paranoid; I'm not ignoring you," Ran insisted and examined his wrapped-up ribs.  
  
"Yes, you are."  
  
"I'm talking to you right now, aren't I?" Ran rose his voice to make his point clear.  
  
"And now you're yelling at me!" Ken shot back, frowning at his teammate.  
  
"You're giving me no choice. You're acting like a child." Ran scowled at himself. He took a stern vow, in the car on their way home, that he'll distance himself from Ken. His irrational thinking during the mission was due to this distraction, and he knew he needed to focus himself. The idea was, in fact, to ignore Ken, but that's easier said than done.  
  
"This isn't why I came here." Ken's tone softened. "I wanted to apologize to you for being such an idiot last night."  
  
Ran looked up at him, not exactly expecting this. "You did nothing wrong."  
  
"Yea, except almost get us both killed."  
  
"I acted on impulse. If I had thought it through, I could have had both of us out of that building before Oracle even set foot on the roof."  
  
"Don't tell me you're blaming yourself for this!" Ken let his voice rise. He had always been very emotional; never exactly the calm and collected type.  
  
Ran sighed. There was one surefire way to get rid of anyone, and that's to tell him what he wants to hear. "No one needs to take the blame. We're all alright, aren't we?"  
  
"I'll be more careful next time," Ken promised.  
  
"So will I."  
  
The idea of Ran being any more careful than he already is amused Ken. "I gotta go. I have a shift with Yohji in ten minutes," he rambled and made his way out of the room.  
  
Ran laid back on the bed and looked up at the ceiling. This was going to be a hard vow to keep, he thought. 


	9. Rendezvous

[A/N: Rendezvouz is French for "date" or "meeting".][I love Brad, I really do, but every story needs a villain, ne?][Wow, this chapter starts out light and then gets all angsty. Kinda bipolar. o_0]  
  
Rendezvous [9]  
  
...  
  
Yohji stood in front of the mirror in the bathroom and pulled the comb through his hair for the ninety-ninth time.  
  
"Yohji-kun, how much longer?" Omi perched himself outside of the door, alternating crossing one leg over the other.  
  
"Just a second. I'm almost done."  
  
"You were almost done a half an hour ago."  
  
"Oh, don't exaggerate."  
  
"This is cruel," Omi whined.  
  
"Why don't you just go to the bathroom next to Ken's room?"  
  
Omi raised an eyebrow. "Can't. Ken-kun and Aya-kun have been in there forever."  
  
"What!?" Yohji pulled open the door before the statement was even completely finished.  
  
Omi wasted no time slipping into the bathroom past him and pushing him out. "Kidding." He grinned and locked the door behind himself, leaving a very bewildered Yohji in the middle of the hall.  
  
"They all think you're innocent, but I'm on to you!" Yohji called to Omi past the bathroom door. Oh well, he only had a couple comb strokes left anyway. He could manage like this. He walked down the stairs, fixing his belt along the way and grabbed his keys off the kitchen table before disappearing out the door.  
  
~  
  
"You're really going?" Nagi appeared in the doorway and rested his head on the frame.  
  
"You should be in bed." Schuldig looked up as he pulled on his boots.  
  
"Thank you, mother." Nagi frowned.  
  
Schuldig laughed and got up to leave the room, ruffling Nagi's hair on his way out. "You're all I've got, little one."  
  
"How disturbing," Nagi replied, leaning against the wall in the hallway.  
  
Schuldig sighed and turned back around, kneeling in front of him. /Listen, what I'm doing right now is complete idiocy. Do as I say, no as I do, got it?/  
  
"Hypocrite."  
  
"Yea, well. I'm just making sure you don't see me as some sort of a role model or anything bizarre like that."  
  
"Wouldn't dream of it."  
  
"Good!" Schuldig stood up and smirked. "Now don't make me escort you back to bed."  
  
"I think I can find my way back alright."  
  
Schuldig grabbed his keys from the hook on the wall and turned to leave down the hall. /'Night, kid. Wish me luck./  
  
Nagi sighed and pushed himself off the wall as the door swung closed. He slowly made his way down the hall back to his room, but when he reached it, he found Brad sitting on his bed.  
  
"There are a few things I need cleared up," he said, his glasses eerily reflecting the light from the hall.  
  
~  
  
Omi suddenly shuddered in his spot in front of the TV, and started rubbing his arms from the uncomfortable feeling surging through him.  
  
"Hey Omi, you alright?" Ken asked from the couch as he turned down the volume of the soccer game.  
  
"Just the chills, I guess."  
  
Ken pulled a blanket off the back of the couch and threw it to him. "Here, catch."  
  
"Thanks," Omi replied and wrapped it around his shoulders.  
  
Ran walked into the room from the kitchen with a glass of water in his hands. "I'm going to sleep," he said as he made his way towards the stairs. "Try not to keep me up with that game."  
  
"Hey Aya," Ken called after him. "Wanna stay and watch with us?"  
  
Ran continued up the stairs without turning around. "Not especially."  
  
"G'night, then," Ken said and slumped back down onto the couch.  
  
"Hn."  
  
~  
  
Yohji had been dancing for an hour straight with more people than he could count, and he was no where near finished for the night. A break, though, sounded rather good. He pushed himself out of the crowd and made his way to the bar.  
  
"Anything cold," he told the bartender and pulled up a stool to sit on.  
  
/Nice moves./ That familiar voice echoed through his head and he felt himself smirk. He didn't bother looking around; Mastermind would show himself eventually.  
  
/Couldn't get enough of me last night?/  
  
/You could say that./  
  
/Here on business or pleasure?/ Yohji smiled at the bartender as she placed the drink down in front of him.  
  
"What do you think?" Schuldig whispered into his ear and slid into the barstool next to him.  
  
"I think I have a stalker," Yohji said and took a long drink from the potion the lovely bartender concocted for him.  
  
Schuldig laughed, perching his elbow on the countertop. "And what if you're right?"  
  
"Then I'm terribly flattered," Yohji said and quickly finished off his drink. "Dance?"  
  
Schuldig stood up and ran his fingers through Yohji's hair. "What's the hurry?" He said and leaned down, locking their lips together. Alcohol, sex, and danger is what Schuldig tasted like, and those just happened to be Yohji's top three favorite things.  
  
~  
  
"The first thing I'd like you to explain to me is where Schuldig disappeared to," Brad said and pulled a cigarette out of his shirt pocket.  
  
"To a club, I guess." Nagi shrugged.  
  
"Any club in particular?" He asked nonchalantly and lit the cigarette.  
  
"I don't know. He didn't say." Well, that part was true.  
  
"Any reason in particular?" Brad put extra emphasis on 'reason'.  
  
"Crawford, I don't know what you're suspecting but.." Nagi began, but Brad didn't let him finish.  
  
"But you're really just as innocent as you look, and you have no idea what treasonous things Schuldig could be up to?"  
  
Nagi's eyes widened at hearing this, but he willed himself to stay calm. "He's not doing anything wrong."  
  
"Alright, then." Brad sighed, turning his attention towards the window for a moment. "I suppose I can inquire about it when he gets back."  
  
"Yea."  
  
After a moment of silence, Brad held out his hand and said, "Come here."  
  
Nagi's eyes shot up in surprise, but the waters he was treading were to deep to allow for argument. He took a couple of steps forward and felt Brad's hand move across the bandage on his stomach.  
  
"It seems to be healing well," he commented and pulled off a corner of the adhesive to look at the wound.  
  
"It is," Nagi agreed.  
  
"The doctor said that if the arrow had been in your side any longer, the situation would be much worse."  
  
Nagi nodded, concentrating all his will as not to pull away from the pain the exposure was causing his sensitive skin.  
  
"And it was pulled out at such a precise angle that it didn't cause any more damage coming out," Brad said and pressed on the wound.  
  
Nagi flinched and bit his lip. He finally realized where Brad was going with this, and he just wanted to run as far away as possible.  
  
"Tell me, dear Nagi, how did that come about that the arrow was removed so accurately, as if by a skilled hand?"  
  
"I pulled it out. Luck, I guess," Nagi lied and suddenly felt a sharp sting on his cheek. His knees gave in under him as his hand instinctively went to nurse his bleeding lip.  
  
Brad bent forward to grab his face. "You think you can lie to me? You forget who I am."  
  
Nagi kept his eyes as low as possible, only waiting for Brad to let go of his face. It hurt so much, he thought his jaw would shatter into pieces.  
  
Brad finally let go and casually walked towards the door. "By the way, if Schuldig contacts you, make sure he knows to come talk to me tomorrow morning. I think he might need some of the same things cleared up."  
  
Nagi heard the door click closed behind him. He wrapped his arms around his stomach, feeling his wound bleeding down his hand again. He couldn't help the childish tears falling from his eyes. It hurt so much. So much. In fact, it hurt so much that his tears shattered all the glass in the room, sending it flying everywhere, adding more cuts to his body.  
  
Nagi looked up and realized that he had broken the window, and all the small shards of glass were scattered all over his room. The important thing, though, was that the window was gone. There was just space between him and the outside. He pulled himself up off the ground and stumbled closer to the it, not bothering to worry about the pieces of glass he stepped on. When he reached the window, he moved his arm outside of it to make sure that it was really gone. Sure enough, just space. He placed one bare foot over the sill and felt the ground underneath him. The other foot soon followed. Before he knew it, he was running as fast as his weak body allowed and as far away as he could imagine.  
  
~  
  
Schuldig's eyes shot open, and he pulled away from Yohji on the dance floor. "I gotta go."  
  
"What?" Yohji watched him push his way through the crowd around them and decided to follow. He passed all the meandering hallways and finally found his way out of the place.  
  
"What the hell are you doing?" Schuldig yelled to him from his car when he saw that he had followed him to the parking lot.  
  
"What am I doing?" Yohji called back and ran over to him. "I'm not the one that just shot out of there without another word!"  
  
"Believe me," he said from his car, "I wouldn't leave unless I absolutely had to."  
  
"Schwarz emergency," Yohji concluded.  
  
"Sort of. Don't worry, I'll see you again in your dreams." Schuldig replied myseriously as he started up the engine and drove away.  
  
"See ya." Yohji smirked. "Smooth. 'See you in your dreams.' Real smooth." He laughed. 


	10. Search Party

Search Party [10]  
  
...  
  
Schuldig practically ripped the front door open and hurried down the hall to Nagi's room. He stepped inside and a cold gust of wind swept over him. His eyes narrowed as he saw the broken window, the glass shards all over the room, the spots of blood on the ground, but no Nagi.  
  
"Where is he?" Schuldig asked, sensing someone standing behind him.  
  
"Don't know." Farfarello crossed his arms over his chest. "I woke up and they were both gone."  
  
"Both?"  
  
"Crawford's gone, too."  
  
"What the hell happened?" Schuldig ran his hand through his hair and looked around for clues as to where they might be. After getting no visible response, he added, "Did they leave together?"  
  
Farfarello, without showing any serious concern, walked into Nagi's room. "Blood on the windowsill," he said. "Nagi left this way. Crawford took the car."  
  
"Crawford must be looking for him."  
  
"Is that a bad thing?"  
  
Schuldig looked up suddenly, taken aback by the ambiguity of the question. "I don't know." He paced around the room. "Where the hell is that kid?"  
  
"Can't you contact him?"  
  
"Don't you think I thought about that already? I know he's hurt, but I can't get any clear thoughts."  
  
Farfarello shrugged. "Where would you go if you were in his place?"  
  
Schuldig sat down on the couch and looked contemplative for a moment. He'd go to see Yohji, of course. Who else? He thought for a moment longer and suddenly yelled, "Oh, shit!" He shot up from his seat on the couch and rushed out the door.  
  
Farfarello raised an eyebrow and watched him leave. "He says I'm a psychopath."  
  
~  
  
Nagi stopped running some time ago simply because there was no more breath in his lungs to allow him to continue, and the pain from his bleeding feet finally set in. He didn't know where he was. All that mattered was that he ran for so long, he must've gotten far. He stumbled along the ground, regretting being so impulsive that he didn't think to put on shoes.  
  
He looked up from his feet and saw a bench a couple of feet away. He trudged over to it and collapsed onto it, exhausted.  
  
~  
  
"Yohji-kun, is that you?" Omi called from the kitchen.  
  
"Yea, where are you?" Yohji stepped inside and closed the door after himself, locking it.  
  
"Kitchen. I had a headache and couldn't sleep. Came down to get aspirin." Omi appeared in the hall where Yohji was perched up against the wall, pulling his shoes off.  
  
"We've got the morning shift tomorrow, babe." Yohji hung his jacket on the hook beside the door. "Better get to sleep."  
  
"Mhm," Omi agreed and rubbed his eyes. They both made their way up the stairs until they heard the lock on their backdoor click.  
  
Yohji stopped in his tracks, and looked up at Omi. "Go to bed," he said and made his way back down the stairs, skipping the last step. He walked up to the backdoor and prepared himself to scare the living hell out of whoever it was that decided to break into their house. This has happened before; some pathetic street thief trying to break into the house of four trained assassins, and it never ceased to amuse him.  
  
Much to Yohji's surprise, when the door swiftly slipped open, he wasn't exactly met with the face of a pathetic street thief.  
  
"Tell me he's here," Schuldig said and let himself in.  
  
"Do you have a death wish? What the hell are you doing here?" Yohji stepped outside, pulling him along.  
  
"He's not," Schuldig said, more to himself than to Yohji. "What now?"  
  
"You're not making sense. What's going on?"  
  
"Nagi ran away. I figured he'd come here." Schuldig slumped against the wall, hitting the back of his head on it.  
  
"Why the hell would he come here?"  
  
Schuldig threw his arms up in the air. "I have no idea. Because I would?"  
  
"Is that why you disappeared on me tonight?"  
  
"Yea, I think he's hurt."  
  
Omi suddenly appeared from behind he door. He had heard enough. "Let's go," he said decisively and grabbed his coat.  
  
"You little eavesdropper. And how much did you hear?" Yohji asked, pulling him back by the collar of his jacket.  
  
"Everything."  
  
"Oh, Kami-sama." Yohji ran his hand through his hair.  
  
"If the kid wants to help, I don't see any problem."  
  
Yohji sighed and shrugged. This was quite the unlikely complication. He had expected to come home after a hard night's dancing and... other things, and sleep until Ran sadistically woke him up the next morning; instead, he was on a wild goose chase, if you pardon the cliché, to bring the Schwarz telekinetic safely back home. Who ever thought? Then again, Omi seemed determined, and he couldn't just let the kid go god-knows-where with Schuldig, out of all people.  
  
"So where do we start?" Yohji asked, hopping over Seven's door and into his driver's seat.  
  
"We split up," Schuldig decided.  
  
"I'll search through the park. Yohji, you can drop me off there," Omi suggested.  
  
Yohji started the engine. "Alright, hop in. I'll drive around town."  
  
"I'll go down to the beach."  
  
~  
  
Ran sat up and angrily grumbled some incomprehensible cruses. He pulled himself out of bed and trudged out of his room, down the hall, and to the bathroom. He bent forward over the sink and splashed wave after wave of freezing water onto his face.  
  
"Stop it," he said to himself as he leaned back against the wall and covered his face with his hands.  
  
He finally decided that the best way to take care of "the situation" involving Ken, that he found himself in, was to just ignore it and live as closely to his norm as possible. He determinedly detached himself from the wall and walked out into the hallway, almost walking into "the situation" himself in the process.  
  
"Aya," Ken said, looking bewildered. "What are you doing up?"  
  
"Couldn't sleep," Ran replied and wasted no time walking back down the hall.  
  
"Me neither. Weird dreams."  
  
Ran stopped outside of his bedroom door and bit his lip. 'You have no idea,' he thought.  
  
"I was just going downstairs to watch some TV 'til I pass out. Wanna join me?"  
  
A million thoughts propelled themselves inside of Ran's head. He couldn't spend the night with Ken. He'd break his vow before he could even catch himself, and that would be dangerous. Then again, he just decided to act as much within his norm as possible, and normally, he wouldn't see any harm in going to watch TV with anyone at all. Then again, this isn't exactly a normal situation.  
  
"You're over thinking it, Aya," Ken said, much to Ran's surprise, and turned to leave down the stairs. "Just asked you if you wanted to watch some TV. I'll be in the living room."  
  
Ran watched him leave, in his state of somewhat indifferent shock. He allowed himself to hit his forehead against the wall and turned to walk down the stairs. He stepped into the living room and saw Ken stretched out on the couch. "Hey," he said, sitting down next to him.  
  
"Hey."  
  
~  
  
Schuldig raced his car along the highway by the beach, keeping a keen eye out for Nagi. He chose to look for him here because he remembered the boy always being fascinated by it. He said it made him feel peaceful.  
  
/Come on, kid. Where are you?/ Again, Schuldig got no clear response, but he felt that he wasn't even close. With an exasperated sigh, he made a sudden turn and headed back towards town.  
  
~  
  
Yohji carefully inspected each street, shining his headlights into every alley. He pulled out a cigarette and managed to light it with one hand while steering the car with the other. What the hell was he doing anyway? If you had told him, one week ago, that he'd soon be driving Seven around the city, in the darkest hours of the night, for the sole purpose of bringing a Schwarz member safely home, he would have brushed it off as insanity or alcoholism.  
  
What was he getting himself into? It wasn't the normal mode of operation to help out the enemy. Then again, it wasn't the normal mode of operation to kiss the enemy, either. His lips curved up just a bit at the memory. He had always been somewhat of a rebel, always attracted to danger, but this was just a bit much. Whenever Schuldig touched him, it was like a wave of electricity passed through him. Talk about living life on the edge, he just spent the night dancing with his nemesis.  
  
~  
  
The park looked like hell in the middle of the night, Omi decided. More precisely, it looked like a graveyard in hell. He had to keep reminding himself that he was a trained assassin, otherwise he'd be scared out of his wits. The trees looked foreboding, the wind sounded ominous, and the place just generally seemed like it didn't want you there.  
  
Omi shivered and rubbed his arms to get rid of the goose bumps. This looked bleak. He hoped the others were having more luck than he was.  
  
He was currently taking a path that took him around the lake. There were trees on either side, and he had the distinct feeling that they would close in on him and never let him out. He took a deep breath and pulled the jacket closer around his arms as a gust of wind blew his hair into his face. 


	11. Find Me

[A/N: I'm just so bad at updating. ::weeps::]  
  
Find Me [11]  
  
...  
  
Farfarello sat on the floor of Nagi's room, picking tiny pieces of glass out of the carpet; tiny, bloody pieces, that is. The clean ones were boring. He hoped Nagi wouldn't ask for these back because they would make a nice addition to his collection. He sighed and sat back against the bed. Maybe Nagi wouldn't even come back, he mused, because it looked to him like Schwarz wasn't exactly on the best terms lately.  
  
Just because Farfarello had a slight obsession with knives doesn't automatically suggest that he's completely oblivious to everything around him. In fact, lately he had managed to compile a rather impressive list of observations. For one thing, he noticed how the fights between Schuldig and Balinese have progressed, or rather regressed; from serious competition to a rather childish play fight, more teasing than anything.  
  
The next thing that caught his attention was Crawford's seriously bitter attitude as of late. Well, more bitter than usual. He seemed to have lost some of that trademarked collectiveness that the rest of Schwarz found so admirable. Farfarello deposited his pile onto the ground and started moving the pieces around to make a picture, like a puzzle.  
  
Another thing that didn't fail to meet his observant eye was the fact that Nagi was being extra-contemplative lately. Farfarello knew that he had been under the care of Schwarz since the early beginnings of his memories, so he didn't know much of a life outside of it. The only life he did know was his painful childhood before Crawford 'rescued' him, so to speak. Now, though, he was growing up and realizing that there are other things in life than Crawford's unconventional (to put it lightly) plans for the future.  
  
Farfarello thus came to the conclusion that there is nothing more likely to break up a team than a love-struck telepath, a bitchy leader, and a rebellious teenager.  
  
~  
  
Schuldig drove up next to Yohji's car and signaled for him to stop so they could talk. Yohji pulled over into the parking lot of a gas station and got out.  
  
"Anything?" He asked as he approached Schuldig's car.  
  
"Not a damn thing."  
  
"Maybe he wants to be alone," Yohji suggested, lighting a cigarette.  
  
"That's all fine by me, but I know he's hurt." Schuldig got out of his car and began pacing back and forth along the fence that circled the gas station.  
  
"He couldn't have run that far. Maybe he took a bus somewhere."  
  
"Hell, maybe he flew somewhere," Schuldig bit out angrily and punched the fence.  
  
"Maybe! Because you know, he's.. " Yohji laughed but managed to compose himself when Schuldig frowned at him. "Ok, bad joke. I say we try the other end of the city."  
  
"I say we find your Bombay before we go off any further."  
  
~  
  
Omi felt like he had been walking for eternity, and he only got more discouraged with each step. He was never one to give in to discouragement, especially in a matter as important as this. He looked out into the horizon and wondered how long it would be until morning. Everything always seemed more promising in daylight.  
  
Omi looked forward onto the path ahead of him. His breath caught in his throat when he focused on a long, thin arm hanging from the edge of a bench. His mind raced and soon became numb to any logic. He ran over to the bench and grabbed the small arm, kneeling down on the ground.  
  
"What are you doing here?" Omi gasped out, watching the boy's vacant face.  
  
Nagi's eyelids lifted heavily and a blank smile crossed his lips. "Just thinking about what it would be like to die here."  
  
"Don't say that. Do you know how many people are looking for you?"  
  
"Too late anyway," Nagi replied cryptically. "I'm either dead or passed out as it is."  
  
"No," Omi said, confused, "you're fine."  
  
Nagi closed his eyes as if he were trying to picture something. "Nothing good ever happens to me. Not in real life, at least. Good things happen in my dreams, and you finding me here would be more likely to happen in a dream than in real life. Can't be real."  
  
Omi's eyes saddened as he moved the hair out of Nagi's face and felt him wince at the touch. "Did I hurt you?"  
  
"It's ok." Nagi sighed and, after a short silence, asked, "Did you really come all the way out here just to look for me?"  
  
"Yea. Schuldig and Yohji are looking, too."  
  
"I'm sorry, I'm such a brat," Nagi said as he finally opened his eyes again.  
  
Omi examined the small cuts all over his body. "No, whatever the reason you ran away, it's a good thing you did."  
  
"Oh, this?" Nagi asked, pulling his arm up into view. "This, I did to myself."  
  
"Your cheeks are bruised. You didn't do that to yourself."  
  
/Bombay, got anything?/  
  
Omi shuddered as the voice resonated through his head. He could never get used to that feeling. /Yea, I found him. We're at the park by the north side of the lake. Come get us./  
  
/Good kid! We'll be right there./  
  
~  
  
Brad pulled out of the parking lot of the building he had just finished his meeting in. Only he had the connections to call a meeting like that in the middle of the night. He had this all figured out. It didn't take any premonition on his part to be able to see that Nagi would run away after a confrontation like that. The kid was impressively predictable. What was even more impressively predictable was that Schuldig would drop everything and go looking for him. Brad gave Farfarello extra medication that night, which left him to go about his business of getting rid of useless people without any pesky distractions. He had absolutely no desire to go looking for Nagi; at least, not yet.  
  
~  
  
Schuldig pulled into the street by the park and got out of his car. Yohji soon followed the same procedure, and the two quickly made their way through the trees, to where Omi said he'd be waiting.  
  
"Over there!" Yohji pointed out, spotting the two figures through the shadows of the trees. Schuldig was over there immediately, gathering Nagi up in his arms.  
  
"What the hell is all this about?" He demanded.  
  
Nagi looked up at him as if noticing him for the first time. "You're going to yell at me even when I'm dead?"  
  
"What? You're not dead." Schuldig scrunched his eyebrows in annoyance.  
  
"He has a fever," Omi explained as he pulled himself up off the ground. "He's been kind of out of it."  
  
"No wonder I couldn't contact him."  
  
"Hey, are we gonna stand around here all night?" Yohji was ready to get to that nap he's been missing out on.  
  
"You're right. Let's go," Schuldig agreed, and the four made their way back to where the cars were parked.  
  
"Where are we going?" Nagi asked, wearily.  
  
"Hospital, stupid."  
  
"No! I don't like them." Suddenly, a sharp, cold wind broke through the trees around them.  
  
Schuldig frowned. "Listen, kid. You're not exactly in any condition to go anywhere else."  
  
"They ask questions."  
  
"So I'll lie."  
  
The wind slowly died down. Resigned, Nagi let Schuldig place him down in the backseat.  
  
"Omi," Yohji called, ready to start Seven's engine. "Get in, we're going home."  
  
"Yea," Omi replied as he took one last look at the backseat of Schuldig car and quickly ran over to sit in Yohji's passenger seat.  
  
"And not a word of this to Aya or Ken."  
  
~  
  
Ran wasn't concentrating on the television; the middle-of-the-night nonsense programs made his head hurt. He looked around the room and let his attention settle on the dim lighting emanating from the lamp. He made a quick mental note to change the light bulb on that. The television suddenly flickered and a screen of variously colored stripes appeared, along with a hideous prolonged beep. Ran frowned at it and reached for the remote to turn it off.  
  
"I'm going back to bed. You can stay down here if.." He began but realized that he was talking to himself; Ken had fallen fast asleep some time ago.  
  
Ken turned uncomfortably on the couch. "Aya.." he said and bit his lip.  
  
"Are you awake or not?" Ran narrowed his eyes in the dark and leaned over him to shake him awake. "Ken, get up."  
  
Ken's eyes flickered open and focused on the figure leaning over him. "Aya." He pulled himself up, in his half-conscious state, wrapped an arm around Ran's neck and kissed him.  
  
Before either of them had enough time to gather any thoughts, the lock on the backdoor clicked open, and Yohji and Omi miserably trudged in. Ran immediately pulled himself away and, without as much as eye contact towards Ken, walked into the hallway where Omi and Yohji stood, pulling off their shoes.  
  
"Aya, you waited up for us!" Yohji grinned.  
  
"Where've you been?"  
  
"At a club. Where else do I go?"  
  
Ran scowled. "And you took Omi with you?"  
  
"Yup," Yohji lied. "Came back for him. Thought he could use some time away from everything. Don't worry, though; I made sure he didn't drink. Right, babe?"  
  
Omi stood by the coat rack and nervously twisted his fingers into his hands. He didn't like lying, especially to Ran. He always somehow managed to spill the whole truth to him no matter how hard he tried. "Yea," he mumbled, focusing his eyes downwards.  
  
"Well, I'm getting back to bed." Yohji stretched his arms over his head. "I figure we can get two or three hours of sleep in before the morning shift." He stood up straight in front of Ran and saluted him. "Sir! Good night, sir!" He then swiftly made his way up the staircase.  
  
"Good night, Aya-kun." Omi quietly walked around Ran and followed Yohji up the stairs.  
  
"Nice one, eh?" Yohji said once they were out of hearing range.  
  
Omi sighed in a mix of relief and exhaustion. "Yohji-kun, the idea of making up a false alibi is not so the lie gets us in just as much trouble as the truth."  
  
Yohji laughed. "It worked out, didn't it?"  
  
"I think Aya-kun isn't himself tonight."  
  
"Really? What makes you say that?"  
  
Omi scrunched his eyebrows. "Well, he believed that ridiculous story, for one thing." 


	12. Dreaming

[Author: A hypothalamus is the part of the brain which mainly serves to regulate temperature and other basic functions; right below the.. thalamus.] [Readers: Uh... good to know?]  
  
Dreaming [12]  
  
...  
  
Schuldig lied stretched out across two guest chairs in Nagi's hospital room. His feet were hanging off one end, and his head lay uncomfortably on the wooden armrest of the other end. He looked over at Nagi and saw that the boy had finally managed to get to sleep.  
  
They had just gotten to the hospital, but Nagi was still so worked up about the events of the night that the nurses resorted to giving him sleeping pills. Working with his fever, the pills eventually knocked him out.  
  
Schuldig turned in his makeshift bed and cringed as the armrest dug into his back. He'd have to think of something to get his mind off this nuisance. It was then that he remembered the promise he made to Yohji just a few hours ago. He smirked and let his eyelids fall lazily over his eyes.  
  
~  
  
Ken hadn't slept. No way. In fact, he was sure he'd never be able to fall asleep again. After a traumatic experience like that, he doubted he'd ever be able to close his eyes again. Currently, he was lying face-up on his bed with a pillow placed strategically over his face.  
  
"I'm an idiot," he declared into the pillow.  
  
Now how the hell was Ken supposed to explain this? He couldn't very well just walk up to Ran and say, 'Hey, yea so I was dreaming about you, and when I woke up, I thought I was still asleep, and since it's completely natural for me to kiss you in my dreams..'  
  
Ken cringed at the thought. He then remembered that he had the afternoon shift with Ran that day, and immediately resorted to find a hole to crawl into.  
  
"Oh God, please strike me down right now."  
  
~  
  
Yohji lied stretched out on his bed, sheets twisted around his legs, lip bitten down by clenched teeth. He'd been tossing and turning for the whole three hours he was given to sleep that night. His hair stuck to the sweat on his forehead and his eyebrows scrunched down in intense concentration.  
  
Suddenly, Yohji took in a sharp breath of air and his eyelids flew open. He immediately forced them back down again when the unpleasant sun shone painfully onto his face. He just lied there on his bed, arms stretched out on either side, legs trapped in-between the covers. Slowly, very discretely, his lips curved up a bit.  
  
"'I'll see you in your dreams.'" Yohji laughed, repeating Schuldig's words to himself. "Well," he sighed, "the man keeps his promises."  
  
~  
  
"Farfarello," Brad said sternly as he walked into Nagi's disheveled room. "Wake up."  
  
Farfarello fell asleep the night before, lying down next to his puzzle of bloody glass shards. He faintly heard the voice pierce into his head, but all the medication Brad shot through his veins the night before made his thinking foggy.  
  
"What is it?" He asked as he numbly picked himself up and looked around the room, slowly registering the events that took place there.  
  
"Your new assignment is to find Schuldig and Naoe. I doubt they'll come back here, so it's up to you to locate them and inform me of their whereabouts. If I were you, I'd start looking through hospitals."  
  
~  
  
Omi looked exactly like a ray of sunshine. He sat by the kitchen counter, his legs dangling down the tall stool. The lack of sleep barely fazed him. After all, the missions were always at night; he was used to it. He took a sip of his tea and looked out of the window, letting the sun wash over his face.  
  
"Good morning, world!" Yohji called as he walked down the stairs and into the kitchen.  
  
Omi looked up from the window his attention was fixed upon and arched a questioning eyebrow. "You sound like you're in too good of a mood for someone who slept no more than three hours."  
  
"Ah, and that's where your eyes deceive you," Yohji said as he pulled up a stool to sit on, at the counter. "In reality, I'm tired as hell, and I can't think of anything I wouldn't give for another couple of hours."  
  
Omi smiled warmly at him. "How about some coffee then?" He stood up and went to the coffeemaker, knowing what Yohji's response would be.  
  
"Thanks, babe. I owe you my sanity."  
  
Omi prepared the drink and handed it to Yohji as he pulled himself back into his seat. "So, about what happened last night..."  
  
Yohji looked up from his cup and raised his eyebrows. "I don't think I should discuss adult matters like that with you."  
  
Omi's mind processed the miscommunication, and he sighed jadedly. "I meant Nagi."  
  
"Ah, forgive me. I have my mind in dirty places." Yohji put down his coffee and slapped a silly grin onto his face. "So what about the kid?"  
  
"I went to look for him without putting much thought into it at all, and now that I think about it, it was completely illogical. Then I realized that you did the same thing, so I thought maybe you could tell me.." Omi rambled on, losing himself in his own confusion.  
  
Yohji looked at him as if the answer were obvious. "You think I'd let you run off, in the middle of the night, with Schuldig? I'd have to be insane."  
  
Omi's dropped his head onto the top of the kitchen table, disappointed that Yohji didn't offer him a more profound answer. "You're one to talk," he mumbled.  
  
Yohji smiled and rested his chin on his hand. He had finally figured it out. Ah, the glow of an epiphany. "Why don't you go make an extra delivery to the hospital today, ne?"  
  
Omi looked up at him and allowed an innocent smile to play on his lips. It was nice not to be in such a situation by yourself.  
  
~  
  
Ran opened his eyes, feeling the sun shining through his window. He made a quick mental note to get darker curtains, and began the process of identifying the series of feelings surging through his body. He frowned, sat up in bed, and wearily acknowledged the fact that he has been waking up like this all too often lately.  
  
Ran pulled himself out of bed and angrily trekked down the hall to the bathroom. Walking in, he locked the door behind himself and ran the shower. Once satisfied with the coldness of the water, he pulled off his clothes and stepped inside. He let the water painfully wash over him, and then sat down against the wall.  
  
"That damn kiss," Ran grumbled and allowed the water to splash over his face. "What the hell was he thinking?"  
  
~  
  
"Love?" Schuldig almost choked on his hospital Jell-O.  
  
"Yea," Nagi said, poking his food with a straw. "What is it?"  
  
"You have got to be kidding me."  
  
"Would you please take me seriously." Nagi frowned at him.  
  
"Alright, well I suppose there can be some confusion with everything that's been.. going on," Schuldig started and perched his feet on top of the table next to Nagi's bed. "So, you've been hearing all this nonsense about the birds and the bees, when in reality, bees can make do without the birds, and same goes for the other way around."  
  
A book from Nagi's nightstand levitated at Schuldig's head. "No, idiot. I mean 'love' love."  
  
"Oh, the human thing." Schuldig frowned and sat back in his chair. "I don't know really."  
  
"What do you mean you don't know? You go into people's heads. How hard can it be to figure out?"  
  
Schuldig thought for a moment, and then remembered reading something about examples being the best way to explain things. "Remember Abyssinian and Siberian at the last mission?"  
  
"Yes. So?"  
  
"That."  
  
Nagi didn't like the direction this was taking. "They don't even know.."  
  
"Alright, let's put it this way: love is a lot like a hypothalamus."  
  
"How can that possibly make enough sense inside your head that it would be considered alright to say out loud?"  
  
Schuldig laughed but soon placed a serious look on his face. "Just hear me out. It controls everything, right? But few people know it's really there."  
  
Nagi's breakfast discretely floated into the trashcan, uneaten. "You're an idiot."  
  
"Well!" Schuldig announced, standing up from his chair and tapping his watch. "Your date should be here soon so I think I'll just give you your privacy."  
  
"My who?"  
  
/You know where to reach me if you need me./ With that, Schuldig waltzed out of the room, waving good-bye to a very confused and embittered Nagi.  
  
~  
  
Farfarello settled himself comfortably against a tree and watched the comings and going of the area around him. Yet another ambulance pulled up, and yet another poor victim was rolled out of it and in through the front doors. He was bored out of his mind and was about to give up on this place totally when an interesting sight caught his eye. He watched as Omi perched his bike against the side of a tree and went to retrieve the flowers to be delivered. What an unexpected turn of events.  
  
Omi took a few moments to study the front entrance to the hospital and finally decided to go in. Had he known that Farfarello inconspicuously made his way across the street to follow him in, he might've had some second thoughts. He walked up to the desk where visitors were asked to sign in and placed the flowers on top of the counter.  
  
"Good morning, Asami-san. I have a delivery for Naoe Nagi." With the many deliveries made to the hospital everyday and Ran's frequent-flyer miles, the florists of the Koneko no Sumu Ie were well-known there.  
  
The lady behind the desk smiled pleasantly at him and pulled up some information on her computer. "Good morning, Omi-kun. I hope you're well. I'll deliver these the moment I get the chance."  
  
Omi put his angelic face on. "You look busy, Asami-san. I can take them up for you."  
  
"Oh, how considerate of you." She smiled up at him. "Naoe-san is in room 126, just on the second floor. Thank you for saving me the trip."  
  
"Any time at all. Take care," Omi said and made his way down the hallway to the elevator. Had his mind not been completely focused on the task at hand, he might've noticed Farfarello following him a safe distance away.  
  
Farfarello, being a man of worldly knowledge, realized that if Omi took the elevator, it would be smarter for him to use the stairs; and so, he waited patiently, hidden by the door to the staircase, for the elevator to reach the second floor.  
  
Omi stepped out of the elevator and looked around at the numbers by the doors. "One-twenty," he said to himself as he walked down the hall. "One-twenty-two, one-twenty-four," and finally, "one-twenty-six." He stepped into the dark room and quickly noted that it was colder than any of the others in the hospital.  
  
Nagi's head lay on his fluffed pillows, and his eyes looked directly up, towards the ceiling. He felt someone walk into the room, but he wasn't sure if he really wanted to exert all the energy necessary to acknowledge this.  
  
"Nagi," Omi said and took a few more steps into the room.  
  
It was suddenly clear that acknowledgement would be necessary so Nagi turned his head to look at his visitor.  
  
Meanwhile, Farfarello leaned against the wall outside of the room. His original plan was just to walk in there and cause hell as always, but curiosity suddenly got the better of him. He decided to stick around for a while and see where this would lead. Besides, it promised to be a rather interesting confrontation. 


	13. Unlucky

[A/N: KA-BAM!]  
  
Unlucky [13]  
  
...  
  
The usual morning rush of school girls passed the flower shop already as they often do, and a serene quiet settled over the area. Like the calm after a hurricane. Yohji pulled up a chair to a table and busied himself with starting on some of the orders placed that day.  
  
/Coast clear?/  
  
Yohji couldn't help the smirk that twisted itself into his lips. /All clear./ He responded after looking around for any signs of Ran or Ken.  
  
Schuldig then let himself in through the front entrance of the shop and casually walked behind Yohji, wrapping his arms around his shoulders. "So, how'd you sleep?"  
  
"It's funny you should ask." Yohji turned his head a bit to the side in order to face him. "You were there."  
  
Both men suddenly pulled away from each other when footsteps clearly sounded from above. "Shit," Yohji declared and shot out of his chair, pulling Schuldig out of the room by his arm. Thinking quickly, he slipped them both into the storage room in the back of the kitchen and shut the door.  
  
"I think you're kind of paranoid."  
  
"Sh," Yohji shushed him and moved his ear to the door to see if he can make out what the footsteps are doing.  
  
Schuldig sighed and sat down on some wooden crates in the room. /You know, you could have very well just thrown me in here and stayed out there where you're supposed to be./  
  
Yohji looked over at him and frowned. /You're right. Now Aya's gonna be pissed because I'm not working like I should be./  
  
/Oh, admit it./ Schuldig grinned and held out a hand for Yohji to take. /You just wanted to be stuck in a small, dark room with me, didn't you?/  
  
Yohji took his hand, settling himself on Schuldig's lap so they sit face-to-face. /You really are a mind reader./ He loosely hung his arms around Schuldig's neck.  
  
Not far away, Ran, frustrated and sleep-deprived, was pacing around the flower shop. Now, he was sure he remembered something about Yohji and Omi having the morning shift, but apparently, that was not the case. He scowled and resolved that, even if it's the last thing he does, he'll find them both and exert his best lecture-giving skills on them. Responsibility is responsibility.  
  
Responsibility was also, conveniently, a sure-fire way to keep all other stray thoughts away. Ran decided to start with the upstairs rooms since, in all likeliness, Yohji was probably still in bed.  
  
~  
  
Ken pulled the pillow off his head and set it aside. After hours of self-torture, he came to the conclusion that this was no way to live. Was he a man or a mouse or, according to Yohji, a teenage girl with a crush? He was a man, that's what! By a margin of error, he could even be a mouse, but, by no means, was he a teenage girl with a crush! Then he suddenly remembered Sakura, the teenage girl with a crush that seemingly won Ran over, and he got the sinking feeling that Ran would prefer a teenage girl with a crush over both a man and a mouse.  
  
The pillow was miserably placed over Ken's face yet again.  
  
No, Ken decided and threw the pillow to the other side of the room, this was no way to live! Before he allowed more time for thinking, he pulled himself out of bed and stormed out of his room, almost walking right into Ran. He made a mental note to quit almost walking right into him and then made another mental note to start breathing again.  
  
"Aya.."  
  
'Responsibility, responsibility, responsibility...' Ran had a natural flare for looking completely indifferent, so the situation wasn't as difficult for him to handle as it was for poor, perplexed Ken. "Have you seen Yohji?" He asked, perfectly stoically.  
  
"Uh.. no," Ken finally managed past the clouds of bafflement circling around his head. Ran was acting like nothing happened. Ken briefly thought that maybe he had dreamed the kiss, too, but then realized that this was just a typical Ran reaction.  
  
"I've been looking for him all morning," Ran said and then made his way past Ken and down the hall towards Yohji's room.  
  
"Aya, you can't just pretend I don't exist," Ken called out to him in a moment of impulse.  
  
Ran turned around, almost reluctantly, and glared at him. "And why not?" He asked in his coldest tone.  
  
Ken was a bit taken aback by this; he didn't expect Ran to be that completely heartless. "I hate this! Because no matter how much this inconveniences you, I'm still alive!" He looked to Ran for some sort of response, but when the redhead just stood in front of him, unaffected, Ken shrugged his arms in defeat and proceeded to escape down the stairs.  
  
Ran was half kicking himself and half trying to regain his senses after Ken's emotional outburst. Once he realized he still had legs, he followed Ken down to the kitchen.  
  
~  
  
"You brought flowers?" Nagi delicately pulled himself up into a sitting position on his bed and folded his hands in his lap.  
  
"Mhm, it was the fastest way to get to your room." Omi frowned at how dark the room was. He walked over to the window and placed the flowers on a table there. He then pulled the shutters up, allowing a stream of sunlight into the room.  
  
Nagi squinted his eyes and pulled a hand up to shield them from the sun. "What are you doing?"  
  
Omi turned around and placed his hands on his hips. "They're flowers; they'll die without sunlight."  
  
Nagi sighed in defeat and dropped back down onto his bed. "What is it that you want anyway?"  
  
"Truthfully," Omi said and sat down on the edge of the bed, "I came for answers."  
  
"I thought you might say something like that."  
  
"A lot of things have been happening lately that you wouldn't call normal, and they pretty much all revolve around you."  
  
Nagi frowned and turned so his back was facing Omi, and the shutters on the window suddenly slammed back down.  
  
"I didn't mean it in a bad way!" Omi sighed and placed his hand on Nagi's shoulder. "Like when you saved Aya-kun and Ken-kun. I just want to know why."  
  
Nagi's eyes trailed to the ground and, without turning around, he said, "Because I don't believe anything anymore."  
  
"Everyone needs something to believe in," Omi said, idly.  
  
"I always fought for Schwarz because that's my cause and that's what I thought was right. Then, one time, Schuldig told me that there is never a definite right or wrong and that nothing is ever just black or white."  
  
"I suppose that's true. There is no universal right, just the right that's in your heart."  
  
"But how can you ever know that what you're fighting for is the right thing to fight for?" Nagi turned over onto his back again so he could see Omi's reaction. "When I saw how your teammates risked their lives to help the others, I thought that if they're willing to make such a sacrifice for any one thing, they must be absolutely sure it's right. So, you see, I couldn't just let them die."  
  
Farfarello now slid down to the ground of the hospital hallway, listening to Nagi's confessions. 'No right or wrong,' he thought and hit the back of his head against the wall.  
  
~  
  
"Hey, you hear that?" Schuldig whispered to Yohji and turned his attention to the metal door separating them from the kitchen.  
  
"Aya and Ken," Yohji said as he shifted his weight on Schuldig's lap. "This is getting ridiculous."  
  
"They fight like this often?"  
  
"Yea, all the time. The brunette doesn't know what to do with himself and the redhead thinks the world is going to fall apart all the time. I'm already sick of hearing it."  
  
A smirk slyly made its way onto Schuldig's face. "Hey, I have a really good idea, but I'll need some assistance."  
  
"Oh, do tell."  
  
"Well, it looks to me like poor Ken is putting himself on the line, and all he's getting from the Ice God is the cold shoulder. So, I was thinking, if Ran had a personality like you or I, there would be no problem at all."  
  
"I'm not sure where you're going with this." Yohji raised an eyebrow in a curious sort of confusion.  
  
"If I can get into Ran's head, I can make him do anything I'm doing. Kind of like a puppet. He'll mimic my every move."  
  
Knowing that Ran had followed him down, Ken stopped abruptly in front of the storage room and turned to face him. "What is it, Aya?" He asked, miserably. "Come to tear me up some more?"  
  
Schuldig pulled Yohji up into a standing position and whispered, "Play along." He then entered Ran's mind and completely took over, with so much accuracy that he even coordinated their blinking. He pushed Yohji against the heavy door, holding his hands above his head. On the other side of the door, Ran imitated the action and soon had Ken pinned against him.  
  
"Aya.." Ken gasped in utter and complete shock, but he was soon silenced as Ran pressed his lips roughly against his own, following strict directions from Schuldig.  
  
Yohji was thoroughly enjoying this. He wrapped his arms around Schuldig's neck and pulled his fingers through his hair. Schuldig pulled away from Yohji's lips and begin trailing down his neck. Ran, with no conscious thought of his own, did the same.  
  
"What're you doing?" Ken demanded in between sharp breaths.  
  
Ran, of course, didn't answer and continued cloning Schuldig's every action.  
  
Yohji pulled Schuldig's chin back up and kissed him again, both of them forgetting the game at hand. Schuldig let out a mischievous laugh and bit down on Yohji's lip. Ran copied these actions exactly.  
  
Ken swallowed hard. He didn't know rather to be excited beyond belief or scared beyond reason. "Aya," he managed to gasp out, "this.. it's not like you." He wondered why Ran seemed to ignore everything he was saying. What was this anyway?  
  
Schuldig was too caught up to even acknowledge Ken's faint voice traveling into his head through Ran's ears. Playfully, Yohji bit his lip as a counterattack.  
  
Schuldig laughed. "Yohji..."  
  
And so, everyone froze. Schuldig immediately let go of Ran's mind, and he and Yohji just stared at each other in terror.  
  
Ran and Ken pulled away from each other; Ran did so because it's a rather odd feeling to suddenly regain your consciousness after functioning without it for a while, and Ken pulled away because he suddenly felt a lot like throwing up.  
  
"What... did you say?" He asked, regaining his breath.  
  
"Ken?" Ran felt very disoriented. "What just.."  
  
"Bullshit." Ken rushed past him as anger flared up inside of him. "Who the hell do you think you are?" He called after him as he backed out of the room. "You can't just play with people's hearts like that, Aya!"  
  
"Ken, what are you saying?" Ran took a couple of steps towards him, slowly regaining his senses.  
  
Ken wiped his lips on the cuff of his shirt and spit on the ground. "If you ever so much as touch me again, I swear to God, I'll kill you." He then coldly turned around and made his way back up the stairs and to his room.  
  
Ran stood in the middle of the kitchen in complete shock. What the hell just happened? His lips felt numb, his hair was tousled and his clothes were disheveled. Not to mention the fact that Ken just stormed out of the room, pissed off at him and threatening to kill him, and he hadn't the slightest idea why. What the HELL just happened? 


	14. The Door

The Door [14]  
  
...  
  
Farfarello concluded that this Omi kid is a little wise beyond his years. 'The first rule of termination,' he thought to himself, replaying the words Brad engraved into their heads, 'is hate your enemy.' You'd think that would be simple enough.  
  
"Well, I think everyone asks themselves these questions at some point." Omi bit his lip. He remembered when he had decisions like these to make, and it was anything but easy. "Especially people with jobs like ours."  
  
Nagi pulled himself up into a sitting position again and looked down at his lap. "All this chaos is happening because of me."  
  
"We don't know how this will end. All this chaos could very well be a good thing, so let's just hope for that, ok?" Omi smiled pleasantly at him.  
  
"You're painfully optimistic."  
  
"I believe everything happens for a reason, and that gets me through."  
  
Nagi looked up and frowned. "Don't you ever get discouraged, though? When everything just keeps getting worse and worse?"  
  
"Nope, not once!" Omi said and laughed when Nagi rolled his eyes. "Because I'm lucky enough to have people around me who truly care for me."  
  
"Weiss?"  
  
"Mhm, and people who do things because they know, in their hearts, that it's the right thing to do," Omi paused, "like you."  
  
Nagi turned his face away, refusing to acknowledge that. "Don't say things like that," he eventually mumbled.  
  
Farfarello stood up off the ground and began walking back down the hallway. Brad won't be happy, he knew, but it had just occurred to him that there are more important things at stake here than Brad's good mood.  
  
~  
  
Some time after the "screw up", Schuldig sneaked out of the flower shop and drove down to the beach. Realizing that neither Ran nor Ken would be too concerned with his attendance at the shop after what happened, Yohji agreed to follow some time after. The Koneko no Sumu Ie saw very little profit that day.  
  
Ran sat on the second-to-last step of the stairs leading to the second floor. His feet were on the ground, and his arms hung loosely over his knees. His eyes were focused on something on the floor, at the other side of the room. Outside of the window, a light morning shower washed over the sidewalks heated by the summer sun.  
  
Ran didn't notice any of this in his contemplation of what could have possibly occurred earlier that morning. He came to the most logical conclusion, which was that he and Ken got into another brawl, as it wasn't uncommon for them to do so. It would explain their appearance and perhaps even why he couldn't remember anything. A blow to the head sometimes does that to a person. However, it did not explain why Ken was so upset. Their fights never affected him this much. In fact, he'd usually laugh it off right afterwards.  
  
Ran wanted answers, and he was suddenly determined to get them no matter how long and arduous the process. He stood up and marched up the stairs, to Ken's room. He stood outside of the door and determinately knocked on it. No answer, predictably.  
  
"Ken," he said in an I-mean-business kind of way. "Open the door."  
  
Ken sat on the ground of his room with his back against the end of his bed. 'How could I have been so stupid?' He thought, silently kicking himself. 'It was Yohji all along.' He picked up a shoe and threw it at the door.  
  
~  
  
"So, how do we fix this?" Yohji asked, sitting back on the metal divider that separated the highway from the hill sloping down towards the water.  
  
Schuldig thought for a moment. "I could get into Ken's head and try to make him forget everything, but I don't know how well that would work."  
  
"That's perfect! What's wrong with that?"  
  
"Well, he might forget.. everything."  
  
Yohji took a frustrated breath. "No, no more mind games."  
  
"Agreed." Schuldig was one of those kids who learned not to touch the hot stove after he got burned once. "Hell, maybe this will just work itself out."  
  
"Did you NOT hear Ken? He actually threatened Aya's life."  
  
"Alright, I can admit when I screw up. It's partially your fault, too, you know." Schuldig pulled out a cigarette and handed one to Yohji, lighting them both.  
  
"Yea. I say we fess up, but it would probably be smarter if you're not there when I tell them about your brilliant idea."  
  
Schuldig chuckled. "Hey, it's your funeral."  
  
"And you?" Yohji asked, breathing out smoke from the cigarette. "What are you doing about Schwarz?"  
  
"Ah, Schwarz. Should probably have that long-avoided talk with Brad, ne?"  
  
"I guess so. Will it be alright?"  
  
Schuldig raised an eyebrow. "I hope that's not concern I hear."  
  
"And if it is?" Yohji asked, puzzled by his cryptic statement.  
  
"Then you'll need to work on that," Schuldig replied seriously. "There's no room for any sort of concern among enemies."  
  
Yohji laughed. "You know, you almost had me forgetting that I'm still expected to kill you."  
  
"Don't forget that. If you think you're falling too far in then this needs to end."  
  
"Ah, life sucks." Yohji raised his head up to look at the sky, and the beginnings of a warm summer shower washed over his face. "But you're right. Getting attached is not an option for us."  
  
"It's too bad really," Schuldig said, putting out his cigarette. "I was hoping you'd hold down the emotions a little longer. It was just starting to get fun."  
  
"You know, we're treading thin ice here."  
  
"Then," Schuldig said as he walked casually to his car and opened the door, "let's put an end to this tragic romance."  
  
Yohji smiled and threw his cigarette to the ground. "See you next mission," he said before hopping into Seven and driving away towards the flower shop. He knew this was the smart thing to do, but he couldn't help but feel a slight sense of regret. That slight sense of regret seemed to grow on his trip back home and soon turned to a very nagging, almost painful sense of regret.  
  
~  
  
"It's something you need to figure out on your own. No one can tell you what the right thing for you to do is." Omi moved so he sat, more or less, facing Nagi.  
  
"And what if I don't do the right thing?" Nagi watched Omi with half- lidded eyes that portrayed his dejection.  
  
"You will."  
  
Nagi sighed and looked down. "I was afraid you'd say that."  
  
"You always look so sad to me." Omi lifted Nagi's chin up to look at him and smiled sympathetically. "I believe in you. I don't understand why you can't believe in yourself."  
  
Nagi stopped breathing for a moment. He has never known anyone in his life to say exactly what he needed to hear. He untwined his fingers from the white bedcover and wrapped his arms lightly around Omi's waist, resting his head on his shoulder.  
  
A few moments later, a nurse came in, quickly insisted that Nagi eat something and walked out. Omi pulled himself away, suddenly remembering that he still had a shift at the shop. He hurriedly said his goodbyes to Nagi and headed out the door.  
  
"I never got to thank you," Nagi said quickly, and Omi turned in the doorway to look at him.  
  
"Thank me for what?"  
  
"For finding me last night, and also," Nagi began but paused momentarily, "and also, for the flowers." The shutters on the window slowly moved up, allowing light onto the flowers and throughout the room.  
  
~  
  
"I don't care how many dents you make in your door, idiot." Ran stood outside of Ken's room, watching the door shake from another object being thrown at it. "If anything, you might throw something big enough to break it down, and then we wouldn't be having this problem at all."  
  
The main entrance to the flower shop opened, and Yohji stepped inside. He pulled his apron off the hook and draped it around his waist, tying it in the back. He went to go serve a few people who came into the store despite there being no one to help them. They were all rather irritable by now.  
  
"You're such a child." Ran folded his arms. "I am not leaving here until you tell me why you just threatened my life. Do you have any idea what kind of disaster this could be to a mission?"  
  
Ken rolled his eyes. "To a mission?!" Oh, he could not believe this. "You have got to be kidding me!" With this renewed anger as an energy source, he picked himself up off the ground and marched to the door. "Are you completely heartless?" He demanded.  
  
"Are you completely insane?" Ran shot back when the door swung open.  
  
Ken suddenly regretted opening the door. Seeing Ran only made the hurt come back full force. Finding that he couldn't speak to him face to face, he shut the door again and clicked the lock from the inside.  
  
"Well, that was pointless," Ran sighed and leaned his back against the wall.  
  
Ken did the same on the other side of the wall, and they both slid down to sit on the ground.  
  
Omi slipped into the flower shop and went to check in with Yohji. "I'm sorry I've been gone so long. I hope you were alright here without me."  
  
Yohji opened up the cash register and began pulling out change for a man who had been looking for the perfect flowers for his anniversary. "Actually, I just got back."  
  
Omi looked up at him in surprise. "Back? From where?"  
  
"You wouldn't believe it if I told you."  
  
The man buying the flowers thanked them and made his way out of the shop, leaving it mostly empty.  
  
"Try me," Omi insisted.  
  
Yohji sighed. "Alright, come on." He took Omi's arm and led him to the living room, from which you could hear the argument between Ran and Ken on the second floor.  
  
"What? Did I hear that right?" Frustration lined Ran's voice. "You want me to apologize to you?"  
  
"It's the least you can do, asshole!" Ken's voice seemed faintly farther away.  
  
"You won't even tell me what the hell happened, and now you're convinced you deserve an apology?"  
  
Omi bit his lip and looked up to the source of the argument. "What happened?" He asked, bewildered.  
  
"My fault," Yohji said, pointing up to the ceiling.  
  
"What?" Omi was shocked. "You did THAT?"  
  
"Well, hear me out. It was all done with good intentions." Yohji thus began explaining the whole tragedy to Omi, details of which you are well familiar with already. 


	15. Confessions

[A/N: Sorry for the snail updates, guys. My "Insomnia" audience was getting quite restless.]  
  
Confessions [15]  
  
...  
  
"Well," Brad said, his voice almost amused, "I didn't see this coming. I'm impressed; it's gutsy."  
  
Schuldig chuckled and lit a cigarette. "I'm not here to impress you, Brad."  
  
Brad sat back in his office chair and crossed his arms over his chest. "So, tell me, how's the forbidden romance coming along?"  
  
"You're such an asshole, did you know that?"  
  
"I take it it's not well." Brad raised his eyebrows.  
  
Schuldig pulled up a chair to sit down on, not waiting for an invitation to do so. "I didn't come here to talk about that."  
  
"In that case, it must be Nagi who's on your mind."  
  
"Bingo, Mr. Oracle." Schuldig blew out the smoke from his cigarette. "That was a very stupid way to treat the kid."  
  
"Oh?"  
  
"If you ask me, it isn't the best idea to screw around with someone who can literally throw you into infinity with a nod of his head."  
  
Brad chuckled sinisterly. "You've always had such a way of saying things, Schuldig, but I think I'll 'screw around' with whomever I like. Besides, he's just a child; he has no idea what to do with his powers, mind- blowing as they may be."  
  
"Bottom line, Brad, is that your brilliant plans are useless without us, and we both know that."  
  
"Is that a threat?"  
  
"Threaten you?" Schuldig said, mocking shock. "Never. It's more of a warning than a threat. I'm not a man who needs any sort of stability in life. I have no problems with leaving."  
  
~  
  
"You're still out there, aren't you?" Ken had calmed down a bit in- between the long periods of silence between him and Ran.  
  
"I told you, I'm not leaving until you tell me what happened." Ran still sat against the wall with his legs stretched out in front of him.  
  
"You really don't remember anything?"  
  
Ran sighed and hit the back of his head against the wall. "I was looking for Yohji because he wasn't down in the shop like he was supposed to be, and I ran into you upstairs. I somehow managed to piss you off so you ran down to the kitchen, and I followed you. Next thing I know, my head feels empty and you're telling me that if I ever touch you again, you'll kill me."  
  
Yohji and Omi sat on the stairs, eavesdropping. "Well, I think it's about time to face the music," Yohji said and moved to stand up, but Omi pulled him back down.  
  
"No, not yet."  
  
"What?" Yohji asked with a certain amount of surprise in his voice. Omi was the walking conscience of the group. If anything, Yohji expected him to drag him over to confess right away.  
  
"This is good," Omi explained. "If they get through this by themselves then all this nonsense will stop."  
  
"You know, you may be right." Yohji settled back down on the steps.  
  
"Of course I'm right." Omi winked.  
  
Ken stayed silent for a while, contemplating what Ran had been telling him. "You don't remember the kiss at all?"  
  
That took Ran back a bit. "Of course I remember." He briefly wondered what that had to do with anything; it was the night before that Ken kissed him, after all. "Is that what this is about?"  
  
"What?" Omi and Yohji said at the same time.  
  
"I thought you said Schuldig was controlling his mind," Omi whispered to him, making sure to keep his voice low enough as not to be heard by the others.  
  
"He was!" Yohji insisted. "You think Aya would do something like that on his own?"  
  
"Aya, what are you trying to do to me?" Ken asked, half in desperation and half in anger. He hid his face in his hands.  
  
"What am I doing to YOU?!" Ran felt like he were about to claw his eyes out. "How could that have possibly been my fault?"  
  
"Who the hell else do you suggest I blame for that!?" Ken raised his voice.  
  
Yohji and Omi winced.  
  
"How about yourself?" Ran retorted. "You're the one who kissed me, idiot!"  
  
Yohji tried to place everything in his mind. "What is he talking about?"  
  
"I think I get it," Omi said, a sense of understanding evident on his face. "You said that since Schuldig was controlling him, Aya-kun would not be able to remember anything he did that morning."  
  
"Right."  
  
"Then, if Ken-kun asked about the kiss, and he said he remembered it, he must've been talking about another incident that we just don't know about."  
  
Meanwhile, some of the same things were arranging themselves in Ken's mind. Determinately, he stood up and opened the door, walking out into the hallway.  
  
"Ken," Ran said, surprise taking over his voice as he pulled himself up off the ground.  
  
"I believe you," Ken said quietly and draped his arms around Ran's neck, pulling himself closer.  
  
Ran's eyes widened for a moment. Well, he didn't see this coming. "Why?" He asked, baffled at what could have possibly changed Ken's mind so quickly.  
  
"Because when I asked about the kiss," Ken began, not wanting to pull away, "you thought about the one last night right away, as if there were no other ones."  
  
"There were," Ran scrunched his eyebrows, "other ones?"  
  
~  
  
"Whoa," Schuldig said as he stepped into Nagi's hospital room. "What's with all the sunshine, kid?" He looked over at the window and raised an eyebrow, noting the flowers there.  
  
"Flowers die without the sun," Nagi replied blankly.  
  
Schuldig pulled a chair up to the bed and sat down on it. "So, what do you say we get out of here?"  
  
"And go where?"  
  
"Home, of course."  
  
Nagi looked up at him suddenly, shock and confusion mixed in his eyes. "What?"  
  
"Don't worry about it. Everything's taken care of."  
  
"I knew you'd say something like that." Nagi frowned. "Is that what you've been out doing all day?"  
  
Schuldig laughed. "No, not exactly. My conversation with Brad didn't last more than ten minutes, actually."  
  
"Then where have you been?"  
  
"Well, it's a hell of a story if you really want to know." Schuldig thus began explaining the whole tragedy to Nagi, details of which you are well familiar with already.  
  
~  
  
"What's going on? Is there a mission?" Ken asked as he walked down the narrow stairs to the basement.  
  
"Not exactly," Omi replied from his seat on the couch. Ken walked in curiously and sat down next to him.  
  
"Well, now that you're all gathered here, I guess I should just get this over with, huh?" Yohji stood up in front of them.  
  
"Don't worry, Yohji-kun, they'll understand." Omi smiled up at him.  
  
"Oi," Ken said and elbowed him, "you know about this?"  
  
"I'm here for moral support."  
  
"We don't have all day," Ran spoke up from the back of the room. He stood against a wall, looking very irritated.  
  
"Aya, Aya," Yohji said, good-naturedly, "please be in a good mood for this."  
  
"You have five seconds to stop stalling," was the response.  
  
Yohji took a deep breath. He then began explaining the whole tragedy to the other members of Weiss, details of which you, as well as Omi and Nagi, are well familiar with already.  
  
After the lengthy monologue, Omi had a look of momentary shock on his face. True, he's known all this already, but he had no idea Yohji had the ability to talk that fast.  
  
"I think I want to kill you," Ken said, mesmerized.  
  
Ran pushed himself off the wall and calmly walked across the room to the stairs.  
  
"Aya-kun," Omi said sweetly, "if you're going to get your katana, you should know that I made sure to hide it."  
  
Ran stopped on the second step and turned around to walk back into the room. So the kid thought ahead. "And what voice inside your head told you that it would be a good idea to sleep with the enemy?"  
  
Yohji sighed and rolled his eyes. "I didn't sleep with him, Aya."  
  
"You sleep with everything. How do you expect me to believe that?"  
  
"That was harsh."  
  
Ken suddenly stood up, walked over to Yohji and punched him in the face, sending him back a few steps.  
  
"That was harsher," Yohji concluded and inspected the blood seeping through his lip.  
  
"Yohji-kun," Omi said worriedly and walked over to examine the situation.  
  
"You deserved that," Ken said as he calmed down a bit. Punching Yohji made for a very good release of anger.  
  
"Agreed," Omi piped in.  
  
Yohji frowned but allowed Omi to look at his lip. "Whose side are you on anyway?"  
  
"I wanted to kill myself ten times every hour for the whole day!" Ken was being dramatic. "Do you have any idea how many possible suicides that is?"  
  
"Two-hundred and forty," Omi quickly calculated.  
  
"Putting all things aside." Ken went on. "I mean, not even considering that your idea was stupid because that's just obvious; why didn't you say anything right away? You just let me and Aya piss each other off the whole day!"  
  
"That," Omi confessed, "was my idea."  
  
"Are you kidding me?" Ken threw his arms up in the air.  
  
"Hear us out, Ken-kun. We had good intentions. Even Schuldig meant well." Omi sighed and sat down, ending his inspection of Yohji's broken lip. "Some of your fights were so ridiculous, and he and Yohji saw that. I suppose they were trying to help you put those things aside. Technically, had Schuldig not slipped up and accidentally said Yohji's name, it could have worked very well."  
  
"And I was going to tell you a while ago," Yohji picked up the explanation, "but Omi pointed out that it might do you good if you just worked it out on your own. You have to admit, that part worked."  
  
"It's not right to screw with people's minds like that!" Ken was still wound up.  
  
"How could you have trusted Schwarz?" Compared to Ken, Ran was actually doing a rather good job of staying calm.  
  
Yohji looked up at Ran and then back to Ken. "So," he said, not sure where to defend himself first, "is it worse that I was with the enemy or that what we did made you two hate each other for the day?"  
  
"What kind of question is that?" Ken asked, as if the answer were obvious. "What you did to us."  
  
However, he barely managed to finish his reply before Ran said, "that you were with the enemy."  
  
Omi raised his eyebrows and looked around at everyone present.  
  
Ken watched Ran, for a moment, with a look of hurt surprise on his face. "Of course," he said, dejectedly, "I think I understand now." He took a few steps towards Ran and looked down at the ground. "To you, it's like none of this happened, so of course, nothing has changed. It's my fault, really, that I was too dense to see it before. Anything for a mission, right Aya?" Not tearing his eyes away from the floor, Ken walked past Ran and up the stairs.  
  
"It's just one thing after another with you two, isn't it?" Yohji watched him leave. "Kami-sama." 


	16. Mission, Mission, Mission

Mission, Mission, Mission [16]  
  
...  
  
Ken turned uncomfortably in his bed, biting his lip as if he were concentrating hard on something. Even after an ordeal like that, the dreams persisted.  
  
Ran pushed him down onto the bed and climbed up on top of him, pinning him down helplessly. "Aya.." Ken murmured, not sure what to do with himself.  
  
"No talking," Ran whispered to him and traced his tongue along his ear. He slipped one hand under Ken's shirt and used the other to work at undoing the buttons.  
  
"Really," Ken interrupted him, pulling his chin up to see his expression. "Am I important to you?"  
  
"Of course," Ran answered and moved up to let his lips hover over Ken's. "More important than anything."  
  
Ken's eyes lazily drifted open upon hearing the sudden knock on the door. He pulled himself out of bed and went to see what was disturbing his sleep. Ran frowned at him from the hallway. "Mission," he said and began walking back down the hall.  
  
Ken sighed and followed him to the basement. "Mission, mission, mission," he said to Ran's averted back, knowing that he can still hear him. "I can't even dream about you without Weiss getting in the way."  
  
Before opening the door to the basement, Ran turned to look at Ken. "Weiss isn't getting in the way of us, we're getting in the way of Weiss."  
  
"Typical Aya response," Ken sighed and pushed the door open, walking down the steps leading into the mission room. Ran followed him. The remaining members of Weiss were already situated in the room, and Manx stood by, waiting patiently for everyone to arrive.  
  
"Well, this one definitely requires more finesse than your last one," she said from her position in front of the surprisingly irritable members of Weiss. "Alright, I guess I'll put the tape in." She walked across the room to the TV, fed the VCR an unmarked tape, and played the recording.  
  
Persia appeared on the screen in his usual shadows. "Your next mission involves a chain of corporate offices which, in appearance, manage several large banks in the area." A map appeared on the screen, and several areas lit up, indicating the locations of these offices. "In reality, they embezzle the money to run an underground drug ring."  
  
Ran's attention was focused solely on the screen. The mission was already unfolding itself inside of his head. He had been counting on the fact that Schwarz wouldn't appear to complicate things this time, but he's been slowly learning that Schwarz hardly ever let's them complete a mission without making an appearance.  
  
A picture of a man in his forties appeared on the screen. Persia continued, "Your main target is Katoaka Eizo." The picture zoomed to the left side of the screen, and another photo appeared on the right. This one of a younger man in a very dignified-looking suit. "As well as Katoaka's associate, Sakoda Jiro."  
  
Ken sat on the couch with his elbows perched on his knees and his chin resting on the upturned palms of his hands. Somewhere, in the back of his mind, he wished that this would be the last mission he'd ever have to suffer through.  
  
"Both of your targets will be at a covert meeting tonight, at the main office of Katoaka Enterprises." Another map appeared on the screen, indicating the location of this place. "Terminate these two men as well as anyone who stands in the way of completing the mission."  
  
Yohji smirked to himself. 'Ah, Persia is getting a little bloodthirsty,' he thought and tuned out the rest of the message on the screen. He's heard the 'hunt the beasts of darkness' line enough to recite it drunk, in his sleep.  
  
~  
  
Nonchalantly, Nagi stepped into his room and looked around at the mess he left there. No sense in living in a pigsty, he thought. Discretely, all the pieces of glass embedded in the carpet, minus the ones Farfarello helped himself to, levitated into the air and deposited themselves neatly into a trashcan.  
  
"I'm jealous. I always had to clean my room the hard way when I was a little kid," Schuldig laughed and stepped into the room. He squinted his eyes at the mid-afternoon sun that shone through the broken window.  
  
/Is Crawford here?/ That's all that concerned Nagi at the moment.  
  
"Nope, rest easy." Schuldig walked casually into the room and settled himself on top of the bed. "He's out doing whatever research or godknowswhat he does before our missions."  
  
"We have an assignment tonight?" Nagi looked up at him in surprise.  
  
"Yea, if you ask me, Brad's kind of paranoid about Weiss now." Schuldig laughed and kept his focus away from Nagi. "With everything that's been going on, he has every right to be. He's probably more determined than ever to get rid of them."  
  
Nagi looked down at the ground, obvious concern flashing across his face.  
  
Noting the silence, Schuldig looked back at him and said, "This is a serious problem for you, isn't it?"  
  
"It should be a problem for you, too!"  
  
"Not anymore."  
  
"What?" Nagi watched him with a frown on his face.  
  
Schuldig smiled wearily. "I have no more connection to Weiss. I don't care what happens to them."  
  
Nagi laughed, disbelieving to a point of amusement. "Yea, right."  
  
"What? You don't think I'm serious?"  
  
"No, I think you're in denial. You're trying to tell me that you'd drop Balinese in order to be loyal to Schwarz? I'm sorry, but I'm not buying it."  
  
Schuldig smirked, putting on his egocentric persona. "I thought you knew me better. I don't give in to pathetic emotions like that."  
  
"It's funny, now that I think about it," Nagi replied, looking thoughtful. "You know everyone's mind inside and out, but you don't know your own."  
  
Schuldig laughed and mockingly bowed to Nagi. "Ah, the student has become the teacher. Well done, Nagi-sama."  
  
Nagi glared and telekinetically threw a pillow at Schuldig's head.  
  
~  
  
"What do we do?" Omi stood against the door in Yohji's room.  
  
"What do we do with what?"  
  
"The mission tonight. What if Schwarz is there?"  
  
"You heard Persia." Yohji sat up in his bed. "He said to terminate our targets and anyone who gets in the way."  
  
"Yohji-kun, you can't be serious!" Omi pushed himself away from the door and went to sit on the bed. This was definitely a response he hadn't counted upon.  
  
"Listen, I can't tell you to do the same thing because I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I did," Yohji said, keeping his expression abnormally serious, "but I'm completely prepared to treat Schwarz as the enemy they are. All of them."  
  
Omi's expression saddened, and a pleading look appeared in his eyes. "Can you really tell me that you didn't get attached to him at all?"  
  
"I definitely can't," Yohji laughed, but it sounded forced. He laid back down on his bed and folded his arms under his head. "That's the problem, babe. Think of what I'd have to give up to be with him. Weiss, among other things."  
  
"If you have a chance to kill him tonight.."  
  
Yohji had the answer before Omi finished his question. "I'll take that chance. Definitely."  
  
"When I went to see Nagi at the hospital yesterday, we talked about this." Omi looked as if he were very deep in thought. "He asked how I can be sure if what I do is right or wrong."  
  
"And?"  
  
"And that means that he doesn't know if what he's doing is right! How can we condemn someone who is being so manipulated that he doesn't even know the value of his actions?"  
  
"Point taken." Yohji smiled sympathetically. "Omi, you and I are in two completely different situations, even though they may seem alike on the surface. Go with your gut feeling on this one. I'll go with mine."  
  
~  
  
Ran sat on the old couch near the back of the shop, clipping the newly delivered flowers. This batch seemed to have more unnecessary roots and leaves than the others, and he didn't hesitate to swiftly rid each stem of these annoyances.  
  
Ken inspected the load of fresh flowers and bags of soil before him and noted that he had three more bags to lug back into the shop. He wiped the sweat off his forehead and lifted the largest one onto his shoulder. He dragged it into the shop, meandering through the crowd of girls gathered there, and dropped it heavily in front of Ran's feet next to the other bags.  
  
"This doesn't look very fair to me," Ken sighed, catching his breath as he collapsed onto the floor by the bag.  
  
Ran watched him sit down in front of his chair on the ground. Without a word, he put the flower aside and stood up. He walked through the crowd of girls and outside to where the delivery truck stood with the last bags of soil. He threw one over each shoulder and walked back to the storage room where Ken sat perched up against the bag he brought in.  
  
Ken followed him in with his eyes, expecting him to say something. Ignoring his gaze, Ran dropped the bags on the ground and casually went to sit back down in his chair. He picked up the flower he was working on earlier and finished clipping it. All the while, Ken was watching him, debating with himself.  
  
"That was nice," Ken finally spoke up.  
  
Ran didn't bother looking back down at him. "It was easier to just give in."  
  
Ken frowned. He wasn't sure how to take that so he decided to drop the whole thing. He thought that maybe he should get back to the customers but soon realized that no real customers come around this time anyway, frightened away by the screaming fan club. "Aya.."  
  
"What?"  
  
"If Schwarz shows up at the mission tonight," Ken said, pausing for a moment before he continued, "would you kill Mastermind?"  
  
Ran looked down at him with a questioning look as if he couldn't see the reason behind the question. "Of course. Why wouldn't I?"  
  
"You know, because of him and Yohji. Don't you think it would be cruel?"  
  
"Don't you think it's cruel that he jeopardized the safety of Weiss?"  
  
Ken looked away from Ran for a moment and pulled on the leaves of a flower next to him. "I was just thinking..."  
  
"Of a way to screw yourself over?"  
  
"Aya, listen to what I'm saying." Ken furrowed his forehead and frowned at him. "If I were Yohji right now, I'd be devastated."  
  
"That's because you have the maturity of a twelve-year-old girl," Ran pointed out.  
  
"God damn it." Ken was getting frustrated. "Why don't you ever take anything I say seriously?"  
  
"It's hard to when everything you ever say is nonsense."  
  
"It's only nonsense to you because you won't listen long enough to know that it does make sense!"  
  
And this went on for quite some time.  
  
~  
  
Meanwhile, Yohji was in his room, being devastated.  
  
~  
  
Omi walked down the stairs with a purpose; he was in mission mode. He escorted the last of the customers out of the shop and quickly locked up, flipping the open/closed sign over on the door. He meandered around the pots of newly-delivered flowers and bags of dirt to where Ran and Ken sat near the storage room, now in complete silence, refusing to speak to each other.  
  
"Aya-kun, Ken-kun," he said, keeping his voice down as they all did when the enigmatic mission was at hand. "We'll need to leave soon."  
  
"Hn," Ran said and pulled himself up out of his chair, leaving behind the scissors he used to clip the flowers with.  
  
Ken stayed by the storage room for a moment, letting himself float in thought. He wondered what this mission would bring and if they all would come back to the flower shop tonight. Out of Weiss, he'd usually be the last one to have morbid thoughts like that, but each time is so close, and each time he finds himself on the way back home, thankful to whatever God there may be that they all managed to survive that.  
  
Omi stood uneasily in front of the door to Yohji's room. Despite what Yohji told him, he knew deep down that this whole situation was tearing him up inside. How could it not be? Omi knocked on the door. "Yohji-kun," he called softly with a certain amount of empathy in his voice. "We'll be going soon."  
  
Omi waited for a response and, soon enough, heard gradual footsteps approaching the other side of the door. Yohji opened it and smiled, almost painstakingly, down at him. That's what Omi always liked about Yohji; he always answered the door, and he always smiled. Ken is usually content with holding short conversations through closed doors because he's too lazy or too comfortable to get up and answer it. Ran, on the other hand, had smiled a grand total of one and a half times throughout the past year; the one half was the result of a dispute between Yohji and Omi about rather that was a smile or a deformed scowl.  
  
"I got it," Yohji said finally. "Thanks."  
  
~  
  
"Hey, are you coming or what?" Schuldig appeared in the doorway of Farfarello's so-called bedroom.  
  
"Or what," Farfarello answered and went back to gluing.  
  
"Why not?" Schuldig couldn't remember the last time Farfarello passed up a chance to slice and dice.  
  
"I'm busy."  
  
"Busy with what?"  
  
"Gluing."  
  
Schuldig was just about to ask what and why, but he wisely decided to leave it at that. "Well," he sighed, backing up out of the doorway, "good luck with that."  
  
"Thanks."  
  
~  
  
Brad stood leaning against the side of his car. He looked very impatient. Nagi sat in the backseat, held down by the seatbelt. Schuldig casually waltzed out of the building and opened the door to the passenger side of Brad's car.  
  
"Well?" Brad demanded.  
  
"He's gluing." 


	17. Targets

Targets [17]  
  
...  
  
The main office of Katoaka Enterprises looked just like every other office building in Japan, tall and modern. Weiss waited across the street. All but Ken, who decided to take his motorcycle, were perched up against Yohji's car.  
  
"We have two targets, and they should be in one place. Yohji and Ken can take care of that." Ran neglected to give instructions beforehand so now he had to make quick use of his time. "You've all seen the maps. If you get lost, contact Omi on your headsets and he'll tell you where to go."  
  
"Got it, Captain." Yohji winked and pulled his sunglasses out of his car. "Almost forgot," he laughed and put them on.  
  
"Aya-kun and I will find the records room and download their database," Omi concluded, looking around at everyone.  
  
"Let's go then," Ken said and hopped off his bike.  
  
~  
  
"Gluing what?"  
  
"I didn't ask."  
  
~  
  
Weiss split up almost immediately upon entering the building. Ken and Yohji quickly made their way to the staircase, undetected by alarms and the sparse guards there were. Omi stood in the main lobby, thinking about how it smelled very much like the main lobby of a big corporate building should smell, looking around the premises and then down at a small map in his hands. He was not quite sure where they kept the records room as it was under strict security, and Ran was beginning to feel very disorganized. He looked directly up to note the structure of the building for future reference. The lobby was the very center of the building as when Ran looked up, he could see all the way to the skylight on the roof. The offices were on floors built around the lobby, and each hallway looked like a balcony, open towards the center with the doors to individual offices along the outside. The hallways weaved around in a circle along each floor on the inside of the building.  
  
~  
  
"Looks like a giant donut," Ken observed.  
  
"Yup," Yohji agreed.  
  
They got to the right floor with no trouble at all. Everything was going smoothly. Yohji was the first to spot the office they were aiming for. He grabbed Ken's sleeve and pointed to the door at the very end of the hallway. Ken nodded, and they slowly approached it. The door was slightly ajar when they got there, and Yohji could see that the inside was completely dark. He would have guessed there was no one in there if, for just a split moment, he hadn't noticed a moving shadow from the corner of his eye.  
  
Yohji's wire quickly snapped out of its case and wound around the man's neck. Ken flipped on the light switch. The man entrapped by Yohji's wire looked stunned and frightened half to death.  
  
"Sakoda," Ken said, recognizing his target.  
  
"Where's Katoaka?" Yohji looked around the room in disdain. He was hoping to kill two birds with one stone, but Katoaka was nowhere to be found.  
  
"Damn." Ken frowned. "I'll go look for him. Back me up when you're done here." He ran out of the room and down the hall.  
  
"Alright," Yohji sighed, tiredly, "I'll be needing some names."  
  
~  
  
"Alright!" Omi called, excitingly and stuffed the map back into his jacket. "I know where we're going."  
  
After a short moment, Ran replied, "Go." Surprised by this unexpected command, Omi turned back to look at him and was startled to find the cause of it. Ran stood stiff, staring intently at the entrance of the building where Brad grinned in all his casual arrogance.  
  
"Aya-kun," Omi said quietly, unwilling to leave Ran on his own.  
  
"You have a mission. Go." Ran's voice was slightly harsher this time, and Omi left without further hesitation.  
  
~  
  
Ken walked into the private bathroom behind Katoaka's office. Why not? He looked around at the elaborate marble finish of the place, the ornate window looking out into the lit city below them, and his target handcuffed to the sink. He looked scared shitless.  
  
"What the f-"  
  
"Siberian," a voice from near the window spoke up. Ken recognized it right away. All too often did he hear it inside his head.  
  
"What the hell do you want?" He asked, hoping Schuldig wouldn't make any sudden attacks because he wouldn't be able to decide rather to fight back or not.  
  
"Oh dear God," Katoaka sighed in trepidation.  
  
"Tied him up as bait," Schuldig said matter-of-factly and stepped out of the shadows.  
  
Ken raised an eyebrow. "I think you caught the wrong person then. Yohji's still with Sakoda."  
  
"Oh no, no," Schuldig corrected him, "I meant to get you. If Yohji had come in here, we'd be expected to kill each other because of, well, the obvious reasons. You, on the other hand. No one will be particularly suspicious if the two of us aren't trying to put the other in his grave."  
  
"Yea, ok," Ken said. "You want to talk?"  
  
"Exactly, but I don't conduct private matters in front of strangers." After a couple silent seconds passed, Schuldig cleared his throat and motioned his head towards Katoaka.  
  
Katoaka knew what was coming and whimpered. His high forehead sweated beads.  
  
"I can't just," Ken paused, "kill him all locked up like that." He observed the situation before him. "Where'd you get those handcuffs anyway?"  
  
~  
  
Omi successfully snapped open the lock to the records room. It was actually more of a hallway, leading to other smaller hallways. He explored for a moment and soon spotted the main computer at the far corner of one of the smaller hallways and sat down in front of it, hooking up all the necessary things so that the download goes smoothly. He did this all, of course, in complete darkness as to minimize the chance of getting caught.  
  
Suddenly, he thought he heard a footstep from the main entrance of the records room, and he tensed up, immediately reaching for an arrow. He had nowhere to run so fighting would be the only option. Very slowly, almost shyly, a figure appeared and walked towards him. It took him a few moments more to realize that it was Nagi.  
  
"What are you doing in here?" Omi gasped, afraid for both their safety. "If someone were to-"  
  
He stopped himself from talking on as Nagi stepped up to him and gently wrapped his arms around his neck. "This is going to be bad. I can feel it," he whispered.  
  
Omi's eyes saddened as he let his arms fall around Nagi's waist. "No it won't. Don't think like that."  
  
Nagi finally pulled away and said, "You are going to be very upset with me."  
  
~  
  
"Can't we just have a normal conversation once in a while, Abyssinian? We never seem to be able to just talk civilized people." Brad stood in front of Ran, gun hanging unthreateningly at his side.  
  
Ran, on the other hand, stood with the katana quite poised and threatening. "Not the first time I've heard you say that."  
  
"That may be so, but this is the first time that we are both in such an eerily similar predicament."  
  
"I'm not sure I know what you're talking about."  
  
Brad cleared his throat. "I'm sure you're aware of our teammates'... indiscretions."  
  
"I was assured that whatever 'indiscretions' occurred between Mastermind and Balinese are now well over."  
  
Brad chuckled, enjoying the slight power that came with realizing that he knew something Ran didn't. "I mean, Abyssinian, my little telekinetic and your Bombay."  
  
~  
  
"How is he?" Schuldig asked, resolved to the fact that Ken just isn't going to kill Katoaka in front of him.  
  
"Why don't you just ask him yourself?" Ken stood with his arms crossed over his chest.  
  
"Because I'm not supposed to want to know."  
  
Ken stood for just a moment, trying to control the slight twitch below his eye. "I think I want to kill myself."  
  
"Alright, fine," Schuldig, annoyed with Ken's incorporation. He sighed irritably and walked past him and out of the bathroom.  
  
"Hey!" Ken didn't like being left clueless like that. He was about to run out after Schuldig and give him a piece of his mind when he realized that Katoaka was still tied up and waiting to be executed. Running on a time limit, Ken efficiently sliced through his throat and followed Schuldig back down the hallway.  
  
[Notes to Reviewers][Hele- I know how the analyzing can be. You're actually pretty close, but please don't analyze yourself to death][ryuu_hime13- closer yet. ^_^][suninun- I'll take that into consideration. o_O][Celeste1- Forgive me for the pain I'm causing. ::gives you a cookie:: there there][Seph Lorraine- Glad you enjoyed yourself. ^_^] 


	18. Shatter

[A/N: Wow, that's a hell of a paragraph.]  
  
Shatter [18]  
  
...  
  
Yohji was actually rather proud of the work he had done that night. The entire thing went rather smoothly and without any annoying kinks. His wire quickly snapped back into its case and he looked around for the quickest way to get out of the building. He didn't want to deal with the maze of hallways and doors and decided to just leave the same way he came, straight through the front door. He ran back down the stairs almost soundlessly (it seems Weiss has cat codenames for a reason, after all) and into the main lobby to find Brad with a very smug look on his face and a rather displeased Ran.  
  
"Ah, Balinese." Brad spotted him from the corner of his eye and motioned for him to walk further into the lobby and join in the conversation.  
  
"Aya," Yohji said unsurely as if looking for some kind of confirmation.  
  
Ran didn't respond, but Yohji walked further into the lobby anyway. Appropriately, he stood in the very center, being the embodiment of the dilemma both teams were being faced with. However confused he may have been with the situation, the predatory look stayed fixed in his eyes, and he always had the wire ready at hand.  
  
As if Irony had been tossing their fate around, Schuldig, annoyed, emerged from yet another staircase. Ken followed him out, saying something along the lines of one or the other making absolutely no sense. However, both stopped upon seeing the impasse in the main lobby. Ran seemed frozen in his spot, and Yohji looked just as confused as they both were when first coming upon the situation. Brad, conversely, greeted every newcomer with a certain flare of pernicious optimism.  
  
"Well, gentlemen," Brad said finally, "looks like we have a stalemate, and you know what that means." Schuldig, Yohji and Ken all exchanged surreptitious looks while Ran tuned in to be more on guard than ever.  
  
"What does that mean, Brad?" Schuldig finally spoke with a note of defiance in his voice.  
  
"Glad you asked," Brad said, eerily keeping his eyes on Yohji rather than the person he was speaking to. "When one comes upon a stalemate, one must think of an incredibly clever way to be through it." With that, he pulled out his gun with almost invisible speed and shot a bullet straight up into the ceiling. There was a split second of utter confusion among everyone before a loud shatter was heard and the entire glass ceiling came crashing down on top of them, each separate skylight releasing the one next to it like a domino effect.  
  
~  
  
"I'm leaving and you can't change my mind," Nagi persisted, still very unwilling to detach his arms from around Omi's neck.  
  
"What? Where are you going to stay?" A string of questions ran from Omi's lips ever since Nagi first introduced the idea of his running away. "Do you even have any money? What if they go looking for you?"  
  
Nagi finally managed to permanently pull himself away. "So many people spend so much energy trying to be special, and all I want is to be as inconspicuous as humanly possible so they just leave me alone. That's all I want. No more people."  
  
"What about Schwarz?"  
  
Nagi laughed bitterly. "They're my main reason for leaving!"  
  
"In that case," Omi realized that he had very little say in changing Nagi's mind, "can I help you with anything?"  
  
"No," Nagi insisted immediately, "I only came to say goodbye."  
  
At that moment, a sharp beep sounded from the corner of the hall, indicating to Omi that his download had completed. He turned to it and pulled out his disc, hiding it in the safety of his pockets. Suddenly, a loud crash came from somewhere in the building, and Nagi and Omi exchanged apprehensive glances. It was the kind of crash that surely foreshadowed something unwelcome. As if on cue, they both ran down the hallway and towards the sound of the noise without saying a word.  
  
It was odd, Omi thought, how Nagi seemed to know exactly in which direction to go even though the origin of the crash was so obscure to them in their basement hideout. Nonetheless, he followed, trusting Nagi's sense of direction. Running back up the stairs to the ground floor, Omi felt something fall to his feet in the darkness, and it didn't take him long to figure out that it was the disc he had hidden in his pocket earlier. Without a second thought, he stopped to pick it up and replace it, but when he looked up a moment later, Nagi was already out of sight. Omi continued up the stairs, figuring he'll eventually catch up with him once they get to the next level.  
  
A few more flights of stairs, and the crisp smell of capitalism Omi had noted earlier came back to him, and he knew that he had now reached the lobby that was so characterized by that scent. He stopped running and walked in quietly, feeling it was somehow appropriate to do so as there was no more noise anywhere. Everything was very eerily silent. He first caught a glimpse of Nagi, standing near another entrance of the lobby, seeming completely exhausted from having run those stairs in one fast sweep.  
  
Omi, out of breath himself, stood a good ten feet behind Nagi, taking in the scene before them. There was glass everywhere. Literally, across the entire center of the entrance hall were large and tiny pieces of heavy glass, broken and glistening in the light illuminated by the moon. Brad knelt, pressed up against the doors at the far end of the building. He seemed relatively unharmed, but perhaps a bit winded with a few random cuts. Ken took refuge under the reception desk, which was a rather smart move on his part except for the fact that he hadn't managed to hide his legs, and a few glass shards were sticking out of his right calf, his jeans soaking in the blood and sticking to his skin. Ran stood stiffly against the very back wall, pressed up tightly against it to take advantage of the one foot of glassless ceiling directly above him. He was not completely unharmed as one of the shards managed to slice across his cheek and another across his arm. The more serious injuries came upon Schuldig, who knelt on the ground in the center of the lobby, hovering slightly over Yohji, perched up by his forearms. Not much of the falling glass had impaled him, but it certainly left large, bleeding gashes in his back and legs. Yohji still looked completely stunned by the entire situation. His arms were wrapped around Schuldig's neck and head protectively, and he hid his face in his shoulder.  
  
Brad managed to pull himself up and walked rather uncomfortably towards the center of the lobby. "Well, seems like my idea worked just fine. Our stalemate is somewhat dispelled."  
  
Ran moved his hand up to wipe off the blood running down his cheek. He stepped away from the wall and began walking decisively to where he dropped his katana just a few feet away. The glass made sharp cracking sounds underneath his feet.  
  
Schuldig pulled himself up into a kneeling position, Yohji's arms falling away from him, and stumbled back a bit. "You put so much effort into being an asshole, Brad," he hissed. "Must be tiring."  
  
Yohji sat up, too. He tried to stand up but found that a large piece of glass lodged into his shin. He sat back and worked on pulling it out because he knew he stood no chance of walking with it intact. Ran had already retrieved his katana and watched every move that Brad made, ready to counter it. Ken pulled himself up off the ground and leaned against the reception desk, unable to stand on his injured leg. Omi finally snapped out of his daze and took a few steps forward to stand next to Nagi. No one seemed to have noticed them.  
  
"Well, this certainly complicates the situation." Brad got a good grip on his gun and pressed it square against Yohji's temple. "We'll need to find out exactly where your loyalties lie, Mastermind."  
  
Ran, ever vigilant of his teammates, within seconds had his katana poised neatly against Schuldig's throat.  
  
"Aya, what the hell are you doing?" Yohji protested despite the uncomfortable positioning of Brad's gun against his head.  
  
"That's a good question," Brad commented, smugly, "if we stay like this, we'll have that awful impasse again."  
  
"I'm trying to save your life, idiot," Ran answered Yohji's question sharply, marking the first thing he's said in quite some time.  
  
"They don't know what they're doing," Nagi said very softly, stunted by the entire scenario.  
  
"Aya..." Ken's voice sounded almost pleading as he limped his way towards him.  
  
"Not now, Ken."  
  
Brad frowned. "This has to end somehow, and I'm running out of ideas for instant catastrophes."  
  
"You don't even know why you're fighting anymore!" Nagi yelled this time, and Omi instinctively grabbed his hand.  
  
"Christ, just kill me." Schuldig was beginning to get fed up.  
  
"Aya," Ken whimpered, "it's cold."  
  
"What?"  
  
Brad sighed, annoyed. "You don't seem to understand, Abyssinian, that his life isn't worth anything to me anymore."  
  
"How can you say that?" Omi was shocked by the idea that Brad could just throw around the lives of his teammates.  
  
Schuldig, sensing that this wasn't going to end well at all, decided to take care of the loose ends as quickly and efficiently as the situation allowed him. "Nagi, listen to me!" The katana scraped his throat as he spoke. "You can't go back home. Leave now!"  
  
"No!"  
  
"...Aya"  
  
"I said, not now, Ken."  
  
"Nagi-kun, he's right. You can't stay."  
  
"They'll kill each other for nothing!'  
  
"You have to put down the katana."  
  
"Yohji, you've done enough stupid things to put us all here as it is."  
  
"It's really cold."  
  
"Are any of you human beings?" Nagi's fists clenched.  
  
"Shut up for just a second, Ken."  
  
Brad fired the gun. "Oops, empty," he laughed.  
  
Omi sensed a serious tension around Nagi. "Nagi-kun, what's happening?"  
  
"Let's see how long that keeps up." Brad fired again.  
  
"You're heartless!" Nagi felt a sudden wave of fatigue sweep over him, and he fell to the ground.  
  
"Aya, please, I'm so cold."  
  
"Empty again. Damn."  
  
Hearing the third shot ring out from Brad's gun, Nagi felt his mind swim while his heart seemed to freeze in space and time. Around him, time had stopped. In his mind, eternity passed in a moment. Everyone was snapped out of their vindictive intentions as a powerful wave of energy shot out involuntarily from Nagi and threw them about the room as if they were trapped in a tornado; everyone, that is, except for Omi, who panicked upon seeing Nagi so torn and Ken, who whimpered, "Aya..." and immediately collapsed, the blood from his leg splattering on the walls as his unconscious body whipped around the room in the wind funnel.  
  
"Ken!" This was in Ran's instinct to say, but he knew very well that it was all to late to take any of the infinite chances he had that night to keep this from happening. All too preoccupied with the situation, he didn't invest much thought into getting his katana back as it tore away from him and was thrown into a wall at the opposite side of the building.  
  
Omi was terrified by what was happening. Especially so because it seemed that Nagi had no control over his powers. "What going on?" He asked as gently as he could manage under the circumstances.  
  
Tears streamed down Nagi's face as he tore his attention away from the floor and focused it on Omi. "I don't know," he explained pleadingly. "I don't know why I'm doing this."  
  
Omi looked up to watch his teammates fly over their heads in a whirlwind when he caught a glimpse of Ken. A pang of panic and desperation hit him, and he quickly grabbed both of Nagi's hands to steady him. "Please stop this. They'll get hurt."  
  
"I can't stop! I don't know how!" Nagi quivered at the inability to control his telekinesis. This was obviously a very dangerous thing to have no control over.  
  
"Is it because you're upset?" Omi searched his mind for a solution to this. "Is it hard for you to control this when you're upset?"  
  
Nagi nodded, concentrating hard to will himself to stop. The more he tried, the more he seemed to panic, and the worse the situation became.  
  
Omi looked up at the chaos over their heads just in time to see Yohji be thrown against a wall, his forehead splitting open with the contact. He looked back down at Nagi and, through a spontaneous stroke of radical thought, pushed himself forward and kissed him. He didn't really know what he was doing, but he figured that Nagi wouldn't either, and that's what's important.  
  
Nagi's train of thought crashed instantly. He found himself lost in a new, entirely more favorable way. He began breathing more deeply, being caught in the soft feeling of Omi's lips against his. It suddenly seemed natural to him to let his eyelids fall over his eyes, and he relaxed.  
  
The tornado in the building slowly died down, and the members of Weiss and Schwarz dropped to the ground like flies. Yohji slid against a wall to the floor, where he decided he was content for the time being. He rested against it and caught his breath. He then felt a slight touch on his shoulder and looked up to see Schuldig kneel down next to him. They were both entirely too worn out to start any of the involved discussion they had coming about what was to happen to them next. Schuldig sat down against the wall, and Yohji shifted to rest his head against his shoulder. For just a little while, it was nice to pretend that none of this was happening.  
  
Ran, comparatively unharmed, limped his way over from where he was thrown to where he saw Ken, who was still unconscious and bleeding. He knelt down next to him to assess the damage. Most of the blood seemed to be coming from around Ken's leg, and Ran figured that he must've broken a vein. He ripped off a piece of his shirt and wrapped it around Ken's ankle, tight enough to stop the bleeding, but not too tight as to break any capillaries. Taking into consideration both his injured ankle and his head, Ran picked him up and walked out of the building wordlessly.  
  
Crawford was already gone. 


	19. The Walk Home

[A/N: "para-"- beside, beyond; "physical"- of matter, of physics, of body-- Webster.]["paraphysical"- pertaining to something outside of the body; emotional, mental][What? Don't you make up words?][Also, to answer a question or two about the last chapter: you get cold when you lose blood because circulation gets messed up.]  


  
  
The Walk Home [19]  
  
...  
  
Once Nagi, Omi, Schuldig and Yohji managed to gather themselves up, they walked outside to find that Yohji's car had disappeared. Schuldig speculated that Ran probably took the car to drive Ken to the hospital, and everyone seemed satisfied with that explanation. Omi and Nagi volunteered to walk home, as they were the only ones to leave that mission completely unharmed. This left Yohji and Schuldig with Ken's motorcycle. Since Yohji wasn't completely conscious due to the gash across his forehead, it was only logical that Schuldig should drive.  
  
"Have you ever driven a motorcycle before?" Yohji asked as he pulled himself up onto the back of the seat, carefully as not to hurt the gashes on Schuldig's back.  
  
"Of course. What do you take me for?"  
  
Yohji watched him examine the bike like one would examine a new VCR. "A liar."  
  
Schuldig laughed and started the engine. "Never mind that. Where are we going?"  
  
Yohji only had to take one more look at Schuldig's back to answer, "hospital."  
  
"Good choice."  
  
Before Nagi and Omi left the premises of Katoaka Enterprises, Nagi's eye caught the glimmer of something metal in the moonlight. Upon closer examination, he realized that it was the katana Ran dropped during the synthetic typhoon he had conjured up. He decided to drag it with him and leave it at the Koneko. It was the least he could do to make Ran think twice about sending him to hell the next time he sees him.  
  
Nagi and Omi walked a short distance in silence, each too absorbed in his own thoughts to even notice that neither was saying anything. Omi suddenly noticed the paraphysical gap between them and decided to close it by taking his hand.  
  
Nagi didn't object but looked away to the side. "You know," he began, feeling that his voice was too meek to overcome the silence, "I still have to leave."  
  
"You say that, but I don't believe you."  
  
Nagi stopped walking upon hearing the challenge and turned to face Omi with a discontented look smeared across his face. "And why not?"  
  
Omi simply smiled pleasantly. "Because that would be very unfair."  
  
"To who? You?"  
  
"Well, yes" Omi said, seemingly putting serious thought into the answer. He pulled Nagi closer and let his arms hang over his shoulders. "Isn't that enough?"  
  
Nagi had to admit that he certainly did have a point there. His expression softened, and he let his face hide in Omi's neck. "So now what do we do?"  
  
"Hmmm, I think," Omi smiled, "whatever we want."  
  
Ran decided that he had divinely surpassed the natural average of hours spent at a hospital in a lifetime. Then again, that wasn't exactly up to him to decide. He ran his fingers over the bandaged cut across his cheek. By the time he brought Ken in, he had forgotten entirely about the wound on his face, but one of the nurses there insisted that it'd be dressed because it would be a shame if it scarred.  
  
Ken woke up momentarily, but seemed to have no idea about where he was or what was going on. This bothered Ran immensely, but the doctors assured him that Ken didn't lose enough blood to cause any brain damage and that he should be perfectly fine after a few days. The nurses quickly shot some sedatives through his veins, and he was knocked out again.  
  
The electrocardiogram had been the focus of Ran's field of vision for quite some time now as he sat on a chair next to Ken's bed. He was so used to watching them that the damn things had become a sort of meditation focus object for him. Little wave, groove, big wave, groove, pause, little wave, pause, little wave, groove, big wave, groove, pause, little wave and so on. He sighed against Ken's shoulder on which he was then resting his head. He could feel his heart beat along with the EKG.  
  
Groove. When will he wake up? Big wave. What will he say when he does? Groove. Should I even be here right now? Pause. He won't even want to look at me. Little wave. Why should he? Pause. If I had any sense at all, I'd get up and leave right now. Little wave.  
  
Groove. Ran's fingers shifted around Ken's hand, and he sighed into his shoulder again. Big wave. No sense at all. Groove.  
  
Farfarello had finished gluing and finished packing. He only had one bag because he wasn't exactly the type to hoard. He packed a pair of boots, medication, some pieces of clothing, a few of the most favored knives, and a wad of cash from the drawer in Brad's office. It wasn't really Brad's money anyway.  
  
As he stood outside of the Koneko no Sumu Ie, he thought about the conversation between Omi and Nagi, which he overheard at the hospital. Such little brats and yet so wise for their years. He decided not to dwell on it too long; he didn't want to stay around long enough for anyone to come home.  
  
The cab driver honked at him to not waste any more time. Farfarello pulled out the object of his intricate gluing, the bloody pieces of Nagi's bedroom window that he gathered for his collection, glued into a shape rather resembling a heart. The blood, of course, had dried and looked more like stained glass.  
  
Don't ever let it be said that Farfarello had no artistic talent. He placed his good-bye present on the ground in front of the back entrance of the flower shop. He pulled out the note he had written before and let it fall onto his work of art. He turned away and walked back to the impatient taxi driver.  
  
"To the only person who doesn't need another one. Went home. ­Farfarello"  
  
The gash across Yohji's forehead was being treated by a very pretty nurse, every doctor's dream. He and Schuldig got separated into two different rooms, according to their injuries, upon entering the hospital.  
  
"It's funny," Yohji said, his face fixed with a faraway look, "on a regular basis, I'd so be asking your phone number right now."  
  
The nurse laughed pleasantly. "What's so irregular about this basis?"  
  
"Well, I guess I'm kind of seeing someone." He scrunched his eyebrows at the confusion this conversation was creating in his mind. Honestly, he wasn't even sure why he said that in the first place.  
  
"You guess?"  
  
"Yea," Yohji chuckled slightly at his inside joke, "it's kind of complicated."  
  
"I see," the nurse said and finished taping the square of bandage to his head, but Yohji could tell that she really had no idea what he meant at all.  
  
"Have you ever wanted someone so much, but it seemed that the entire world forbade you being together?"  
  
"Of course," she said as she gathered her things, "the one we can't have is always the one we want the most."  
  
Yohji laughed. "Well said."  
  
Schuldig suddenly appeared in the doorway and leaned against the frame. "My ears are burning."  
  
The nurse left Yohji and approached him, distaste shooting at him through her eyes. "You were seriously hurt. Back to bed!" She ordered in a rather motherly way.  
  
"Five minutes?" Schuldig pleaded.  
  
She sighed and let her hands fall from her hips. "Well, I can't very well drag you back." She surrendered, smiling at his childlike plea and left the room.  
  
Yohji adjusted his seat on top of his bed and watched Schuldig contemplatively. He had bandages wrapped around his ribs and small band- aids stuck to random places on his arms. "You look so beat up."  
  
"Look who's talking." Schuldig pulled his hair up out of his face and fastened it with a band he usually kept around his wrist. He walked into the room and made himself comfortable on top the hospital bed, lying down on his side next to Yohji.  
  
A moment of quiet followed in which both considered their current position. Yohji turned his neck to look and him and finally broke the silence, "Do you think we should talk about what just happened?"  
  
"What's there to talk about? I'm a hypocrite for telling you that you shouldn't get attached, and there I go. . ."  
  
"So what do we do now?"  
  
Schuldig snaked an arm around Yohji's waist, pulling him down and laughed. It was the sort of maniac laugh one would expect of an inmate sentenced to death who just escaped from prison. "Whatever the hell we want!"  
  
Yohji knew exactly where this was going. Schuldig pulled him down by his shirt for a well-deserved kiss.  
  
Ken really felt like he wanted to sleep some more, but an odd sense of duty told him to open his eyes. Perhaps it was even curiosity as to where he might be. Beep, beep, beep. He wondered what the hell that was. He also wondered about the unnatural weight over his left shoulder. Warm, he thought. There was something entangling his hand. Only five minutes before, he would've sworn that it wasn't even his hand; it was someone else whom he was watching. He then realized that would be impossible because he didn't even have his eyes open, and the sense of touch began to coincide with his body again.  
  
Beep, beep, beep, and Ken began remembering. The last time he heard that sound was at the hospital. How long ago? Years? No, it had only been a little while ago. His eyes hurt, but he dragged up his eyelids. There weren't any bright lights in the room, but whatever little there had been were more than his eyes were used to, and it hurt.  
  
As soon as Ken was able to make his eyes function, he looked over at his left side to find that Ran had fallen asleep on his shoulder.  
  
"Aya," he said and soon noticed that he was barely louder than the squeak of a mouse. He shifted a little bit to see how moving would go. Not bad, he decided. He felt his fingers entangled in Ran's hand again and moved them around.  
  
Ran felt the slight movements like waves splashing against him. He lifted his head up and smiled down at Ken. "Good morning," he said, obviously relieved that Ken had woken up.  
  
Reasoning returned to Ken next, and he suddenly realized that he should be quite upset with Ran. "Now you're nice," he said and frowned. "I have to almost die before you act human to me?"  
  
Ran sighed, deciding not to be truculent this time. "Would you at least give me a chance to apologize?"  
  
That took Ken by surprise. The infallible Aya, apologizing? "Ok. . ."  
  
"I've been horrible to you so that you hate me," Ran confessed.  
  
"On purpose?" Ken raised his free hand to rub his forehead. He could feel a headache coming on. "If you wanted to get rid of me that bad, why didn't you just say so?"  
  
"No, that's not it. It was because you would be a weakness. I realized that Schwarz might hurt you to hurt me, and they have." Ran looked down and noticed that he still hadn't let go of Ken's hand. "It was too dangerous."  
  
Ken laughed bitterly. "And all the while I thought it was because you just couldn't stand the idea that I had feelings for you."  
  
Ran's eyes shot up to look at him. "Had?"  
  
"You did everything I was always afraid you'd do," Ken answered, shaking his head, "and you've said everything I've prayed to never hear from you." He paused. "Even still, I could never stop thinking about you, and even if you take everything I have, I'll always come back to give you more."  
  
Ran sighed, half with exhaustion and half with relief, and rested his head against Ken's shoulder again. "It's be more dangerous to be apart than to be together. I'm sorry I had to learn the hard way."  
  
Ken seemed to consider this for a moment and finally said, "I think I'll forgive you."  
  
"Thanks." Ran chuckled into his shoulder.  
  
"Sure."  
  
"Start over?"  
  
"Yea." 


End file.
